Impact - 2021
Our academic impact
Hosting one of the UK’s only two prestigious UKRI-funded social science Research Institutes, IFS economists carry out cutting-edge empirical research on a par with our leading universities.
IFS Research Director, Rachel Griffith and IFS Research Fellow Carol Propper were both made Dames in the New Years Honours List. IFS Associate Director Anne Brockmeyer was awarded the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship while IFS Research Associate Xavier Jaravel won Le Monde's Best Young Economist award.
Our policy impact
Our research and expertise is drawn upon by national, regional and local policymakers in the UK and overseas, as well as MPs from all parties. We publish high quality, policy-relevant research:
- In 2021, IFS was mentioned 149 times in parliamentary debates, and over 2,100 times in the last ten years. (Source: Hansard).
- We produced 46 reports and briefing notes on key areas of UK policy.
- Our annual flagship Green Budget report, setting out options and challenges for the Chancellor, was launched over a series of videostreams. Over 400 watched at least some of these live.
“When I worked in the Treasury, we knew the IFS would keep us honest...and we knew that having an independent check on our costings and analysis was an excellent discipline.”
Lord Gus O’Donnell, former Cabinet Minister and IFS President
Our impact on society
We inform public and policy debates on issues such as education, health, inequality and the public finances. We significantly increased engagement and reach in 2021.
- Our primary social media channel is Twitter, where we have over 46,000 followers, demonstrating year-on-year growth of 11.6% in 2021.
- In 2021, our website traffic continued to perform strongly, resulting in over 3.5 million page views.
- We held 49 events in 2021, attended by 5,821 people from media, policy, business, third sector and the general public.
Our media impact
IFS staff regularly engage with journalists from print, online and broadcast media. Our research, analysis and reactive commentary earned us over 29,929 UK media mentions in 2021.
“The Institute for Fiscal Studies’ genuine impartiality has become a major asset in scrutinising claims and counter claims.”
Heather Stewart, The Guardian