Government finances and spending

This paper argues that after five years of the current Labour government, consistent trends in social security policy have emerged

In this note, the authors examine how we might measure the fiscal stance in terms of the scale of the public deficit. They show the path the gap between state income and expenditure has taken since 1946. The paper also tries to isolate the effects of government policy as opposed to the economic cycle.

The paper presents two taxonomies for classifying global and transnational health-promoting activities according to three parameters of publicness -non-rivalry of benefits, non-excludability of non-payers and the aggregation technologies.

This note traces the trends in public spending and taxation in the UK during the twentieth century.

In this commentary, the authors examine the effect of stamp duty on the stock market, on business investment and on merger and acquisition activity. They consider possible threats to the long-run sustainability of stamp duty revenues. The commentary goes on to assess the potential revenue implications of abolition for the government and to examine various means by which the revenues could be recouped. Each of these involves its own potential economic distortions and possible additional administrative costs.

Following the 2002 Budget, this Briefing Note examines some of the Chancellor's changes to business taxation. A number of Budget measures, including the research and development tax credit for large companies and the exemption of capital gains on the sale of subsidiaries, are welcome and should improve the efficiency of the UK's tax system. All of these measures were subject to extensive prior consultation. A number of other measures were not foreshadowed in the Pre-Budget Report. Three of these are examined here - the new 0% rate of corporation tax, the changes to North Sea taxation and the new anti-avoidance measures for stamp duty.

Before the 2001 election the Treasury said that `tax and benefit reforms announced in this Parliament will lift over 1.2 million children out of relative poverty. But official figures released on 11 April show a smaller fall in child poverty, of only 0.5 million since 1996-97. This commentary attempts to explain the discrepancy.

We consider the impact of taxation when investors face a discrete choice between two or more mutually exclusive projects.

This paper deals with local fiscal equalisation in Austria. The system of intergovernmental relations in Austria includes different regulations in order to equalise differences in the fiscal capacity of the municipalities.

The principal of horizontal equity can be interpreted as requiring that households with the same pre-transfer incomes and the same consumption needs should receive the same post-transfer incomes.

Since the November 2001 Pre-Budget Report, there has been much speculation surrounding how much the UK spends on health and how much more it would need to spend in order to reach the average level of spending seen across European Union countries. An aspiration to increase UK health spending to the average European level was first made by the Prime Minister in January 2000. In addition, the Labour Party manifesto states that 'over time we will bring UK health spending up to the EU average'. More recently, the Prime Minister has confirmed that he would like to see UK health spending reach the European average by 2005. This short note compares the level of health spending in the UK with that overseas and discusses how much more the UK is likely to need to spend on health if it is to meet the Prime Minister's stated target.

Market failure can affect the choices that individuals make about education. Christine Frayne, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, looks at the economic arguments.

The Labour government has been at pains to stress the importance of public investment. A large portion of Spending Review 2000 was devoted to explaining why we should care about public investment: it provides the infrastructure that is a prerequisite for improvements in output and growth and is necessary both to supply and to enhance public services. This notes looks at public investment over the last 25 years and identifies trends in the various spending areas.