Carl Emmerson

Deputy Director

Carl is Deputy Director of the IFS, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, an editor of the annual IFS Green Budget and a Director of the Pensions Review. His research includes issues around the UK's public finances, and household retirement saving decisions.

He is also a member of the Social Security Advisory Committee, the advisory panel of the Office for Budget Responsibility, and the UK Statistics Authority's Methodological Assurance Review Panel. He previously served as a specialist advisor to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee.

Education

MSc Economics, Birkbeck, University of London, 1999

BSc (1st Class) Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1996

Contact

Email: Email

Orcid number: 0000-0002-2908-1460

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Showing 21 – 40 of 790 results

Outlook for the public finances

Report

In the current environment of high inflation and rising interest rates, tax cuts at the upcoming Budget would be extremely difficult to justify.

17 October 2023

Policy risks to the fiscal outlook

Report

Pressures on both revenue and spending are skewed to add to borrowing over the next few years, and threaten the ‘centrality’ of official forecasts.

17 October 2023

Inheritance tax raises £7bn a year. It needs reform.

Explainer

We lay out issues with the inheritance tax system and examine options for reform.

10 October 2023

‘Only millionaires should fear inheritance tax – not the property-owning middle class’

Comment

"As inherited wealth grows, the need for tax reform is becoming more pressing." Carl Emmerson writes in The Telegraph.

4 October 2023

This will be the biggest tax-raising parliament on record

Comment

This has been the biggest tax-raising parliament since records began, pushing UK tax revenues to historically high levels.

29 September 2023

IFS/OBR event: Fiscal risks and sustainability

Event 28 September 2023 at 14:00 via Slido and Youtube

This online event, jointly organised by the OBR and IFS, focused on two particular fiscal risks facing the UK.

Chancellors’ asymmetric responses to good and bad news since 2010 resulted in more debt and a bigger state

Press Release

Since 2010, Chancellors have not responded symmetrically to good and bad economic news.

28 September 2023

Chancellors’ responses to economic news

Report

Chancellors don’t respond symmetrically to good and bad economic news. This represents a risk to the accuracy of official borrowing forecasts.

28 September 2023

Fiscal risks and sustainability

Presentation

This online event, jointly organised by the OBR and IFS, focused on two particular fiscal risks facing the UK.

28 September 2023

The triple lock creates uncertainty for pension incomes and savers, as well as the public finances

Press Release

The pensions triple lock has increased state pension spending and creates uncertainty for current and future generations of pensioners.

8 September 2023

The triple lock: uncertainty for pension incomes and the public finances

Report

The pensions triple lock has increased state pension spending and creates uncertainty for current and future generations of pensioners.

8 September 2023

Amidst confusion, there’s widespread pessimism about future standards of living in retirement

Comment

We have found only very limited understanding of pensions in the UK

10 August 2023

Who has low savings and how problematic can that be?

Event 16 June 2023 at 10:00 via Slido and Youtube

IFS researchers presented what we know about which groups of people are most likely to have low savings and how long this tends to last.

What impact did lowering the benefit cap have?

Comment

DWP study finds that lowering the benefit cap led to some moving into paid work, some moving onto an exempting disability benefit and some moving home

20 April 2023

Challenges for the UK pension system: the case for a pensions review

Report

This report makes the case that economic and policy changes in the last two decades necessitate a comprehensive review of the UK pension system.

20 April 2023

IFS Deputy Director Carl Emmerson appointed to the UK Statistics Authority Methodological Assurance Review Panel

Announcement

Deputy Director Carl Emmerson has been appointed to the Methodological Assurance Review Panel.

14 April 2023

IFS residential conference 2023 - Taxing top incomes: design issues & challenges beyond the politics

Conference 30 March 2023 at 12:00 Oxford

This conference, sponsored by CIOT, looked at the taxation of top incomes and asked how the system could be made more rational and effective.

The planned increase in the state pension age from 67 to 68

Comment

There are reports that the government will no longer increase the state pension age between 2037-39. We examine the key considerations for this delay.

25 March 2023