Earthquakes are bad enough on their own but policy can always make them worse. Regulatory and planning policy in the lead-up to the February 2011 earthquake and in the subsequent response period led to needless deaths, too few options for those whose homes were damaged, a confusopoly in insurance, and an endlessly drawn out quest for the perfect downtown plan.

Dr Eric Crampton recently joined the New Zealand Initiative as Head of Research after more than a decade with the Economics Department at the University of Canterbury. He will describe the regulatory and policy failures that exacerbated the costs of the Canterbury earthquakes and outline a research plan to help ensure that, when Wellington is on the receiving end of a natural disaster, our policy settings do not make things even worse.