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Spring Statement 2025: IFS Zooms In
podcast
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27 March 2025
The Schools Bill: what's changing and why?
podcast
The bill aims to improve education and social care for children. But will it work?
11 March 2025
Family values: inheritance, inequality and social mobility
podcast
Wealth concentration among baby boomers and stagnant earnings are driving the rise of the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’, affecting social mobility.
3 March 2025
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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.
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Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy
The Research Centre at the heart of IFS is the CPP.
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Topics

Consumption and prices

Our work in this area looks at how consumers respond to price signals and other incentives to change their borrowing, saving and spending behaviour, as well as how different households' welfare is affected by inflation and changes in indirect taxes.

Showing 1 – 20 of 743 results

Small area consumption estimates for Great Britain local authorities

Working Paper

In this paper, we estimate average equivalised consumption measures across local authority districts in Great Britain.

11 April 2025

Which places have the highest standard of living?

Comment

Measuring living standards using average household spending gives a starkly different picture of regional inequalities than using average income.

11 April 2025

How should governments help households during an energy crisis?

Comment

The government spent billions on support to help households with their energy bills in 2022–23. Could a better-designed package have saved money?

31 January 2025

The welfare effects of price shocks and household relief packages: Evidence from an energy crisis

Working Paper

How should governments respond to rapid increases in the cost of living driven by shocks to the prices of staple goods?

31 January 2025

Do tariffs work?

Podcast

We discuss the economic consequences of tariffs, why governments use them, and whether they actually achieve their intended goals.

23 January 2025

How can government intervene in food markets?

Comment

Why might the government be justified in trying to influence what we eat, and how effective have these interventions been?

2 November 2024

Which net zero?

Comment

Climate change doesn’t care about national borders.

30 October 2024

UK economic outlook: navigating the endgame

Report

Growth has been better than expected this year, but the UK’s recovery is not yet secure. Structural changes will require reform, not just investment.

10 October 2024

Supermarket trolley next to shelves of butter

Cheapflation and the rise of inflation inequality

Comment

We use detailed data on price and spending patterns for groceries to assess the relative impacts of inflation across rich and poor households.

23 September 2024

What would you do with £500? (...in your own words)

Working Paper

We use a new approach to better investigate differences in consumer behaviour in response to hypothetical, one-off gains and losses.

12 September 2024

The gender gap in household bargaining power: a revealed-preference approach

Journal article The Review of Financial Studies

We propose an intrahousehold model that aggregates individual preferences at the household level as a result of bargaining.

22 August 2024

Cheapflation and the rise of inflation inequality

Working Paper

Using household scanner data for fast-moving consumer goods, we show that this was accompanied by historically high rates of inflation inequality.

14 August 2024

Longer-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the dietary purchasing choices of British households

Report

Takeaways and meal delivery grew by more than 50% during the pandemic – and have stayed high thereafter.

4 April 2024

Spring Budget 2024

Collection

All our analysis of the Spring Budget 2024. Includes research, comment, explainers and more.

6 March 2024

Saving by buying ahead: stockpiling in response to lump-sum payments

Journal article Fiscal Studies

This study uses variations in state income tax refunds over time to estimate consumption responses to lump-sum payments.

2 February 2024

The economic stories that will shape 2024

Podcast

As we enter the new year, we take a look ahead at what to expect in 2024.

5 January 2024

Adverse selection among early adopters and unraveling innovation

Working Paper

I provide an equilibrium analysis of 'selection markets,' where consumers vary in both their willingness to pay and the cost to the seller.

18 December 2023

Inflation measurement with high frequency data

Working Paper

We use 8 years of data on 178 consumer product categories to compare bilateral and multilateral index number methods for computing monthly inflation.

18 October 2023

The materials that shape our economy

Podcast

In this episode, we speak with Ed Conway, Economics Editor at Sky News and author of a new book Material World: The Making of Civilisation.

13 September 2023

Tax and public finances: the fundamentals

Report

This report highlights 10 key facts about UK tax and public finance policy that will underpin the choices faced by governments in coming decades.

23 August 2023

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Showing 1 – 20 of 743 results