Public sector pay and employment

Understand this issue

Two-child limit mitigation in Scotland would help larger poor families but policy design could harm work incentives

comment

Mitigating the two-child limit policy would be an effective way to reduce child poverty, but designing an effective policy is not straightforward. 

14 March 2025

What is this government’s ‘theory of growth’? Nobody knows

comment

"Shifting the performance of an entire economy requires a long-term, consistent and persistent direction." Paul Johnson writes for the Times.

20 January 2025

Rethinking the Education Maintenance Allowance: Lessons from a long-term analysis

comment

This evidence should prompt us to look beyond simple financial incentives for classroom attendance.

10 March 2025

Policy analysis

Biggest welfare saving fiscal events (policy measures targeted at working-age and children)

data item

This £5bn saving is the largest cut to welfare in almost a decade, but is smaller in scale than cuts made during the 2010s.

18 March 2025

The role of changing health in rising health-related benefit claims

report

Is the working-age population less healthy since the pandemic? What role is changing health playing in rising health-related benefit claims?

12 March 2025

How can policy boost productivity growth?

conference 25 March 2025 at 09:30

At this policy conference, four panels of experts will give their perspectives and recommendations on four key areas of the UK’s productivity problem.

Academic research

Tax evasion and the contribution-benefit link: the case of maternity benefits

working paper

This paper studies tax evasion and the contribution-benefit link in the context of maternity benefits in Hungary.

18 December 2024

The menopause "penalty"

working paper

We show that a menopause diagnosis leads to lasting drops in earnings and employment, alongside greater reliance on social transfers.

21 March 2025

The short- and long-run effects of paying disadvantaged teenagers to go to school

working paper

This working paper studies the long-run effect of a cash transfer to disadvantaged students on educational attainment, earnings and crime.

26 February 2025