An initial reaction to the OBR's first economic and fiscal outlook

Understand this issue

The Conservative manifesto

explainer

IFS Director Paul Johnson responds to the Conservative manifesto.

11 June 2024

Tough questions will face the election winners

comment

"Whichever of the main parties forms the next government, it will need to cut spending or raise taxes or it will miss its own fiscal targets."

10 June 2024

Liberal Democrat manifesto: a reaction

comment

An assessment of the tax rises and spending increases proposed in the 2024 Liberal Democrat general election manifesto.

10 June 2024

Policy analysis

How would the parties’ tax and spending plans affect Scotland and Wales?

report

This ‘explainer’ looks at how the parties’ proposals would affect Scotland and Wales, covering tax, spending, public finances and the constitution.

28 June 2024

How should we interpret parties’ public spending pledges this election?

comment

Parties have pledged lots of ‘fully costed’ spending policies but these tell us little about the actual funding each public service might receive.

23 June 2024

Main parties’ manifestos tell us little about the funding individual public services would actually receive

press release

Labour and the Conservatives' manifestos are continuing a conspiracy of silence when it comes to public service spending plans.

23 June 2024

Academic research

A monetary-fiscal theory of sudden inflations

working paper

This paper posits an information channel as the explanation for sudden inflations.

20 December 2022

Rewriting the fiscal rules

book chapter

The Chancellor was right to suspend the current set of fiscal targets during the pandemic, and he is also right to take time to consider what a good set of post-pandemic targets will be.

12 October 2021

Spending Review 2021: plans, promises and predicaments

book chapter

In this chapter, we look at the options and trade-offs for the Chancellor ahead of the forthcoming Spending Review.

12 October 2021