
Recent decades have seen rising wealth-to-income ratios. In England, increases in wealth have been concentrated among older generations.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Acast | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | RSS
Recent decades have seen rising wealth-to-income ratios. In England, increases in wealth have been concentrated among older generations.
Those born in the 1980s have accumulated no more wealth than those born in the 1970s had done by the same age, but the parents of those born in the 1980s hold 40% more wealth than the parents of those born in the 1970s held at the same age. One consequence is that inherited wealth is on course to be a much more important determinant of lifetime resources for today’s young than it was for previous generations.
In this episode we speak to James Banks, Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester and Senior Research Fellow at IFS, and David Sturrock, Senior Research Economist.
Related content
Host

Director
Paul has been the Director of the IFS since 2011. He is also currently visiting professor in the Department of Economics at University College London.
Participants

CPP Co-Director
James is Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Economics at Manchester, working on broad issues in the economics of retirement, savings and health.

Senior Research Economist
David’s research covers household wealth, intergenerational transfers, social mobility, pensions taxation, and health and work at older ages.
Podcast details
- DOI
- 10.1920/pd.ifs.2024.0072
- Publisher
- IFS
More from IFS
Understand this issue

Family values: inheritance, inequality and social mobility
Wealth concentration among baby boomers and stagnant earnings are driving the rise of the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’, affecting social mobility.
3 March 2025

Inheritance tax and farms
The Autumn 2024 Budget brought some agricultural property into inheritance tax. What are the changes? Who will be affected? Were they a good idea?
25 November 2024

Professor Sir Richard Blundell to give the Marshall Paley Lecture on inequalities
27 September 2024
Policy analysis

Small pension pots: problems and potential policy responses
What are the consequences of the proliferation of deferred small pension pots and what are the merits of different potential policy responses?
12 February 2025

Government action needed to stop and reverse the proliferation of millions of small pension pots
Without policy action, many will end up with their savings scattered across several small private pension pots by the time they reach retirement.
12 February 2025

How should governments help households during an energy crisis?
The government spent billions on support to help households with their energy bills in 2022–23. Could a better-designed package have saved money?
31 January 2025
Academic research

Ethnic differences in retirement wealth accumulation in the UK
What factors contribute to ethnic gaps in private pension participation rates, and how might these gaps impact future retirement incomes?
23 January 2025

Health inequality and health types
We use k-means clustering, a machine learning technique, and Health and Retirement Study data to identify health types during middle and old age.
3 October 2024

Changing inequalities in Europe and North America: part two
This special issue is the second in a two-part series on the evolution of labour market and disposable income inequalities over recent decades.
2 October 2024