Reports

This paper, written collaboratively by IFS researchers and policy-makers from Ethiopia and Ghana, has multiple and interlinked objectives: (i) to provide an overview of tax incentives and best practices for their design grounded in economic principles, and assess how these apply to the case studies of Ethiopia and Ghana; and (ii) to understand more broadly the causal impacts of tax incentives on economic outcomes in developing countries by reviewing the relevant methodologies to conduct rigorous quantitative analysis and the existing empirical literature.

There are longstanding concerns about the recruitment and retention of teachers in the UK . In recent years there has also been much debate about the extent to which changes to the initial teacher education system have affected the recruitment and retention problem. These concerns are most acute in so called “shortage” subject areas, such as physics .

As in many high income countries, VAT systems in low and middle income countries (LMICs) are often characterised by different tax treatments for different types of goods and services. Often, reduced rates of VAT and exemptions (“preferential rates”) are granted on equity grounds, for goods and services that are thought to take up a greater proportion of the budgets of poorer households. Given typically limited capacity to redistribute through the direct tax and benefit system, it has been suggested by some economists that such rate differentiation might be the best way for governments to transfer resources to poorer households.

This report argues that ongoing reforms to local government finance risk a growing funding gap for adult social care and conflict with efforts to provide consistent and high-quality care services across the country.

This short briefing note summarises what the newly released HBAI data tell us about how living standards have changed after five years of recovery from the Great Recession, how this differs between different groups, and the implications for inequality and poverty.

This briefing note provides estimates of the falls in consumer prices that could be expected if the UK leaves the EU's Customs Union and reduce its tariffs. It finds that even if all tariffs were abolished, any reduction in consumer prices would be more than offset by the 2% increase in prices that have resulted from the post-referendum depreciation of sterling.

Recent years have seen big changes to the local government finance system. These include the ending of annual spending needs assessments and the introduction of the business rates retention scheme (BRRS) in 2013–14.

The falls in the proportion of young adults owning their own home have been documented in previous work. In this briefing note, we provide up-to-date analysis of these falls in homeownership, and which groups of young adults have seen the sharpest falls.

In the early 1990s, average hourly wages were almost 30% lower for women than for men. The gender wage gap has come down, but it remains at around 20%. There are lots of reasons for the scale and persistence of this gap, but new work funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that one important factor is that mothers spend less time in paid work, and more time working part-time, than do fathers. As a result, they miss out on earnings growth associated with more experience.

This is a pre-analysis plan specifies analysis we plan to perform for the evaluation of PANKH: an intervention in Dhaulpur district, Rajasthan targeting marriage, education, mental health and socio-emotional skills of adolescent girls as well as gender attitudes of girls and their carers.

In a new report we examine who holds unsecured debt and when that that debt might be considered a problem.

IFS has published research that is relevant to two of the specific questions asked in the inquiry, and that we hope the committee will find helpful

Following a recent judgment, the UK Supreme Court confirmed that Scottish Government legislation for a minimum unit price for alcohol is lawful. The Scottish Government plans to introduce the measure on 1 May 2018. Meanwhile, the Welsh National Assembly is considering introducing a minimum unit price for alcohol. In this briefing note, we provide evidence on the likely impact of this type of reform.

Preliminary study estimating the lifetime costs of child abuse and neglect.

This paper summarises a working paper estimating the effects of entering the labour market when the economy is weak on subsequent living standards using consistent long-running household survey data from the UK.

This paper considers what safeguards are available and the extent to which the safeguards are adequate given the increased powers parliament is giving to HMRC.

In October, the Prime Minister called for an inquiry into the student loan system for higher education (HE). In this briefing note, we focus on two of the more unpopular features of the current system. We explore government options for reducing the interest rates charged on student loans, from the current levels of RPI + 3% while studying and RPI + 0–3% (depending on income) after leaving university, and for reintroducing living-cost grants – which do not have to be repaid – for students from lower-income families. This briefing note will be submitted as evidence for the inquiry.

In this report, we seek to understand why past recessions have had such different effects on income inequality. We also examine the potential impact of the next labour market downturn on the distribution of household incomes.

In this report, we estimate what has happened since 2015–16 to household incomes and poverty rates.

We examine the effectiveness of two time-limited in-work benefits. These were introduced in Great Britain in the early to mid 2000s and were known as ‘in work credit’ (IWC) and the ‘Employment Retention and Advancement demonstration’ (ERA).