Kate Smith
Associate Director
ORCID
Education
2012-2014 MSc. Economics (Distinction), University College London.
2008-2011 BA. Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (First Class Honours), University of Oxford.
Kate is an Associate Director of the IFS and a PhD student at University College London. Her research interests are in public economics and applied microeconometrics, with particular focus on questions relating to the design of an effective tax system. Her recent work studies the taxation of closely held business owners, and optimal alcohol and soft drink taxes.
Academic outputs
IFS Working Paper W21/30
This paper studies the design of sin taxes when firms exercise market power.
IFS Working Paper W21/18
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant changes in where people work, eat and socialise. We use novel data on the food and non-alcoholic drink purchases from stores, takeaways, restaurants and other outlets to quantify the impact of the pandemic on the diets of a large, representative panel of ...
Reports and comment
Briefing note
The current system of alcohol taxes in the UK is incoherent. The UK’s departure from the European Union offers an opportunity to improve the way that alcohol is taxed, as EU regulations that place constraints on the system of alcohol duties will no longer apply. In this briefing note, we provide ...
Observation
Reports suggest that the government is planning on introducing new measures to tackle obesity, including a ban on television advertising of food and drink products that are high in fat, sugar or salt before the 9pm watershed.
Presentations
Presentation
40% of the growth in the UK’s workforce since 2008 has come from people working for their own business. IFS researchers are using administrative tax records to learn more about the self-employed and company owner-managers, including their characteristics, how these groups have been changing in ...