Taxes and benefits

This report shows the extent to which low pay and unemployment are related, the effects of periods out of work on future earnings and the degree to which low pay is a persistent phenomenon. Importantly it demonstrates the way in which a minimum wage might affect a much higher proportion of the population than is generally appreciated because of the way in which people move in and out of low paid work. A chapter of the report is also given over to the effects of work experience and job tenure on pay levels.

The European Commission has proposed a fundamental reform of VAT in member states, aimed at establishing a durable, or ӤefinitiveԬ VAT regime, compatible with the requirements of the increasingly integrated European single market. Contrary to the expectations of many commentators, the proposals for the definitive regime have not simply revived the Commission's 1987 proposals for the post-1992 VAT regime. Instead, there are some striking new proposals ֠including a single VAT ӤomicileԠfor each business engaged in Europe-wide trade. This commentary describes the rationale of the Commission's new proposals, and compares it with the current ӴransitionalԠregime and other available alternatives.

Are the provision and the extent of work-related training in the UK affected by the amount of job-to-job mobility among the work-force? Conversely, does receiving different types of work-related training make employees more or less likely to move jobs? This report examines both these questions in detail using panel data from the British Labour Force Survey and the National Child Development Survey.

This commentary discusses the background to the policy, presents the economic arguments for and against the levy, and examines some of the issues about how the levy might actually operate in practice.

This paper examines the impact of the UK housing benefit system on the financial returns to employment of people in local authority or Housing Association accommodation.

According to the econometric literature, unemployed jobseekers who use a Public Employment Agency (PEA) have longer unemployment spells than those choosing alternative search methods.

This report analyses the changing economic positions of tenants in subsidised public housing. It shows how low their incomes are today, how these low incomes interact with higher rents and the housing benefit system to reduce their returns to work and looks at a number of reforms to the benefit system.

The basic state retirement pension is payable irrespective of means but it is a contributory benefit, not a universal benefit.

Non-domestic rates are a tax that is formally levied on the occupiers of nondomestic property in the United Kingdom.

A model is developed that allows for a layoff rate and a job arrival rate in the intertemporal choice of consumption and labor market state.

The exact measurement of the welfare costs of tax and price reform requires a detailed knowledge of individual preferences. Typically, first-order approximations of welfare costs are calculated avoiding detailed knowledge of substitution effects.