Testing the RPI data for consistency with the theory of the cost-of-living index

Understand this issue

Sure Start achieved its aims, then we threw it away

comment

"We know that poor children grow up with poor life chances. We know how to ameliorate that. The choice is ours." Paul Johnson writes for the Times.

15 April 2024

Social mobility and wealth

presentation

IFS researchers shared findings from ESRC-funded research on social mobility and its drivers.

12 December 2023

How important is the Bank of Mum and Dad?

explainer

Paul Johnson talks us through patterns of financial help for first-time buyers.

15 December 2023

Policy analysis

How do the last five years measure up on levelling up?

report

How well – or badly – has the UK fared on the 12 levelling up missions? We examine early progress and the scale of the challenge ahead.

19 June 2024

Making mortgage guarantees permanent will help some first-time buyers, but only if they can afford a bigger mortgage

comment

Today, Labour have pledged to make the government’s mortgage guarantee scheme permanent if they win power. We discuss the impact of such a scheme.

6 June 2024

What has happened to earnings since 2019?

report

This report examines what has happened to earnings in the UK since the COVID-19 pandemic.

31 May 2024

Academic research

Income inequality in Ireland, 1987–2019

journal article

This paper highlights an aspect of the Irish experience that does stand out as quite remarkable.

28 June 2024

Components of the evolution of income inequality in Sweden, 1990–2021

journal article

This paper documents how the inequality of household equivalent disposable income has changed in Sweden over the period 1990–2021.

28 June 2024

Labour market inequality and the changing life cycle profile of male and female wages

working paper

We estimate the distribution of life cycle wages for cohorts of prime-age men and women in the US.

15 April 2024