Government finances and spending

The Mirrlees review, the most comprehensive review of tax policy in 30 years published on Wednesday, argues the tax system has to be seen as just that: a system.

This presentation was delivered at the 38th annual conference of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE), which took place in Stockholm from 1-3 September 2011.

This presentation was given on 27 May 2011 at a Keynote Panel on the Mirrlees Review convened as part of the Centre for Economic Policy Research's 2011 Public Policy Symposium, held in Zurich.

CAYT researchers presented evidence on the link between young people's education and labour market choices and economic growth.

This presentation was delivered at the Geary Institute, University College Dublin.

The Office for Budget Responsibility's first 'Fiscal Sustainability Report' - published today - sets out some of the long-term challenges facing the UK's public finances. Demographic pressures alone could raise spending by £80 billion in today's terms by 2060, with a particularly striking increase required in health spending. Tax revenues, especially from oil and petrol, are also under pressure. Long term fiscal sustainability will require hard choices even after the unprecedented fiscal retrenchment planned for the next few years.

Today the Environmental Audit Committee published a report focusing on the implications of Budget 2011 for environmental taxes. One of the key recommendations was that in order to 'build trust and acceptance of environmental taxes', consideration should be given to 'greater use of at least partial hypothecation of revenues from environmental taxes [for environmental ends].' We argue that earmarking revenues in this way would be at best meaningless and at worst inefficient, and that a case for increased green taxes ought to be argued on its own merits.

This presentation was delivered at the 'Conference on Macroeconomic Policy' held at the Murat Sertel Center for Advanced Economic Studies, Istanbul.

The Equalities Act 2010 places an obligation on the government to give 'due consideration' to the effects of its policies on gender inequalities. The IFS was asked by the Fawcett society to consider ways in which our tax and benefit microsimulation model, TAXBEN could be used as part of an assessment of the separate impact of Budget measures on men and women. We have today published some simple analysis that does this.