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How to reduce child poverty: compare the policy options
calculator
Use these charts to compare policies for reducing child poverty and to examine how child poverty rates have changed over time across different groups.
3 October 2024
How can government reduce child poverty?
podcast
We're exploring why there's been an increase in child poverty since 2010 and options the government has to reduce this.
3 October 2024
Are people saving enough into their pensions?
podcast
Automatic enrolment has been successful in getting more people into workplace pensions, but are they saving enough?
20 September 2024
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Guides, manuals, software and more Fiscal facts: public finances, tax and benefits
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Should the government increase capital gains tax?
event 7 October 2024
This online event will look at the case for reforming capital gains tax and what the government could do in the upcoming budget.
IFS Green Budget 2024
event 10 October 2024
The IFS Green Budget will assess the state of the UK economy and the new government’s fiscal position ahead of their first Budget.
IFS Zooms In Live: How to make your first Budget a success
event 23 October 2024
Join us for a special in-person recording of an episode of the IFS podcast the week ahead of Rachel Reeves' all-important first Budget.
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At IFS, we recruit and train top-quality economists and professional support staff. We aim to foster a respectful and inclusive working environment.
20 July 2022
Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy
The Research Centre at the heart of IFS is the CPP.
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Xiaowei Xu

Senior Research Economist

Xiaowei joined the IFS in 2018 and works in the Income, Work and Welfare sector. Her research focuses on inequalities in labour market outcomes and health. Before joining the IFS, she worked at McKinsey, the Gates Foundation and in economic consulting.

Education

MPhil Economics, University of Oxford, 2014

BA (1st Class) Philosophy, Politics and Economics, University of Oxford, 2011

Contact

Email: Email

Twitter: @xiaoweixu_

Orcid number: 0000-0002-9007-8519

Xiaowei Xu: all content

Showing 1 – 20 of 121 results

The employment and distributional impacts of nationwide minimum wage changes

Journal article

We assess the impact of the change in the UK’s minimum wage between 2016 and 2019 on wages, earnings, employment and household incomes.

10 April 2024

How has the NLW affected pay differentials within firms?

Comment

Some evidence on the effects of the National Living Wage on firms' wage structures.

16 February 2024

Inequality in the UK: 1968-2021

Report

How have employment and earnings changed in the UK over the last 50 years? What has the effect been on average incomes and income inequality?

29 November 2023

Housing costs and income inequality in the UK

Report

This report sheds light on some of the drivers of changes in housing costs over time for different groups.

17 November 2023

Housing costs take up three-and-a-half times as much of the budgets of the poor as of the rich, with significant implications for their standard of living

Press Release

"It is not possible to understand income poverty or inequality without taking account of housing costs."

17 November 2023

Increasing concentration of high-skilled jobs in London means graduates elsewhere cannot fully capitalise on their education

Press Release

The current economic geography of the UK limits both social mobility and the effective use of talent across the country.

13 November 2023

The changing geography of jobs

Report

This report examines the way in which ‘hollowing out’ and other labour market trends have shaped the economic geography of the UK.

13 November 2023

Levelling Up: Is inequality between places Britain’s biggest problem?

Podcast

Since 2019, 'levelling up' has been at the forefront of the political agenda - but is inequality between places really Britain’s biggest problem?

16 August 2023

Pay growth for London’s top earners has driven up geographical inequality in mean earnings

Comment

Strong pay growth in business services has pushed up top earnings in London, widening geographical inequalities in mean earnings.

25 July 2023

An image of a block of flats with the City in the distance

Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2023

Event 13 July 2023 at 11:00 via Slido and Youtube

This online event presented the key findings from our latest flagship annual report on living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK.

Poverty

Report

We investigate recent trends in poverty, and government policies aimed at alleviating it.

13 July 2023

Lump-sum cost of living payments poorly designed to alleviate deprivation

Press Release

The government has introduced a series of ‘cost of living payments’.

13 July 2023

Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2023

Presentation

This online event presented the key findings from our latest flagship annual report on living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK.

13 July 2023

Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2023

Report

We investigate how living standards have changed for different groups in the UK, with a particular focus on the cost of living payments and housing.

13 July 2023

Recent changes to universal credit have much smaller effect on poverty than £20 uplift

Comment

Absolute poverty fell from 17.9% to 16.8% in the first year of the pandemic, due to rising benefit receipts.

9 July 2023

Nearly half of older adults who left the workforce in 2020–21 ended up in relative poverty

Press Release

New IFS research, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, shows that 48% of 50- to 70-year-olds who had recently left the workforce in 2020–21 ended

7 July 2023