The £600 billion problem awaiting the next government podcastWe speak to David Gauke and Giles Wilkes, two experts who have been at the heart of the spending review process.25 April 2024
Be the Chancellor Our interactive tool lets you be the Chancellor. Change spending plans, set tax policies and see how your choices impact borrowing and debt.
Should we worry about government debt? podcastDavid Miles joins us to discuss high government debt and its impact on the economy. 11 April 2024
IFS Annual Lecture - Innovation and productivity policies: a budgetary perspective event 15 May 2024 Professor Heidi Williams (Dartmouth College) delivered the 2024 IFS Annual Lecture on innovation and productivity policies.
Jobs landing pageAt IFS, we recruit and train top-quality economists and professional support staff. We aim to foster a respectful and inclusive working environment.20 July 2022
Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy The Research Centre at the heart of IFS is the CPP.
What is happening to public sector pay? Explainer With inflation rising, and a cost of living crisis hitting the UK, how much public sector workers get paid is hitting the headlines. 31 October 2022
The poor are failed most by our inability to reform local services Comment "Our system of funding for local services is not fit for purpose." Paul Johnson in The Times on the urgent need for local services funding reform. 24 October 2022
Mini-Budget 2022 and follow-up Collection Analysis of the government's tax and spending plans - and follow-up - announced as part of the mini-Budget. 17 October 2022
Flexible pensions could offer a way out of the public sector pay crisis Comment Paul Johnson writes in The Times about the problems facing Kwasi Kwarteng. 10 October 2022
Public spending, pay and pensions Report The public sector pay settlements announced this July will pose severe budgetary challenges for many areas of government. 8 October 2022
Will public sector workers get a pay rise? Podcast With inflation squeezed living standards, will the government have to give public sector workers a pay rise? 21 September 2022
Conservative leadership election 2022 Collection Analysis of policy announcements made by Conservative leadership contenders Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. 30 August 2022
Factors associated with staff retention in the NHS acute sector Report This report examines how a range of individual staff characteristics are associated with whether individual staff members decide to leave the NHS. 23 August 2022
Which staff members leave the NHS acute sector? Comment Increasing retention of NHS staff is important for achieving policy goals. We examine which staff are most likely to leave the NHS acute sector. 23 August 2022
The inflation squeeze on public services Comment Higher inflation squeezes public service budgets and makes government spending plans less generous than originally intended. How much less generous? 10 August 2022
An initial response to the public sector pay announcement Comment The government has announced pay rises for public sector workers covered by independent pay review bodies. 20 July 2022
What should public sector pay policy be trying to achieve? Comment What is the objective of public sector pay policy? What is it, and what should it be, trying to achieve? 18 July 2022
The future of public sector pensions Podcast We sit down with one of the architects behind the current public pensions system and discuss whether it is sustainable or needs further reform. 13 July 2022
We didn’t see this coming because for 25 years we thought we had inflation licked Comment 'Pretty much everything we could have got wrong, we got wrong.' Paul Johnson on why economists failed to see inflation coming. 4 July 2022
The hardest decision for ministers is yet to come: what to do about pay Comment Paul Johnson writes for the Times on the 'difficult decisions' surrounding public sector pay. 20 June 2022
Prioritization, risk selection, and illness severity in a mixed health care system Working Paper We study the link between illness severity and the use of public health care services by the privately insured under a public health system. 16 June 2022
Pay compression in the NHS (and beyond) Comment Since 2010, more experienced and higher-paid workers in the NHS have experienced the largest pay cuts. This has compressed the pay distribution. 1 June 2022
Higher inflation means an unintended cut to the Chancellor's spending plans Report IFS Senior Research Ben Zaranko responds to the Spring Statement for Public Finance. 29 March 2022
Planning a short-term pain doesn’t always mean there’s long-term gain Comment "Real change will require policy that is consistent over decades." Paul Johnson in The Times on the balance between long-term and short-term policies. 14 February 2022
The NHS backlog recovery plan and the outlook for waiting lists Comment More than 6 million people are now on an NHS waiting list. This backlog is expected to rise further and won’t be cleared during this parliament. 11 February 2022