Government finances and spending

In the run-up to the 2004 Spending Review, IFS has written a short briefing note, which considers the options for public spending during the years of the review (2005-06 to 2007-08), in light of what has already been announced and what we know about the government's priorities and past spending decisions.

We examine the impact of high school graduation on the probability individuals from welfare

Microsimulation methods are used to identify the contribution of tax and benefit reforms to the significant growth in UK income inequality since 1979.

This paper provides a discussion of stamp duty and its effects.

This Briefing Note looks at the potential for the introduction of a 'fat tax' into the UK in an effort to reduce the growing prevalence of obesity in Britain. This Briefing Note looks at trends in UK obesity and examines evidence on eating habits and exercise in order to see whether trends here can account for what we see happening to obesity. We go on to review some of the key economic reasons behind why we might be concerned about obesity and why we might consider there to be a case for government intervention. We also discuss how food is currently taxed and the various ways in which a 'fat tax' might be introduced, looking at particular issues the government might need to address should it wish to introduce one. We finish by presenting some simple analysis of a hypothetical 'fat tax' in terms of how it might impact differently on the rich and the poor.

The Higher Education (HE) Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons on the 31st of March 2004. Here we suggest one way in which the implementation of the proposals can be simplified.

This paper analyses optimal income taxation as a trade-off between the incentive effects of increased uncertainty and the welfare benefits of social insurance.

We analyse a puzzle in the UK corporation tax: by both historic and international standards corporation tax revenues have been high while the statutory rate has been low.

On 16th February Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, outlined the Conservative Party's preliminary public spending proposals in the form of a "Medium Term Expenditure Strategy". We summarise and analyse the key points in this briefing note.

This is the third report of the longitudinal quantitative evaluation of Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) pilots and the first since the government announced that EMA is to be rolled out nationally from 2004.