IFS Zooms In: The Economy

Everybody over the age of 18 who lives in a property in the UK is eligible to pay council tax. It's the fifth largest tax, raising up to £40bn a year in the UK, and it pays for local services such as social care, waste collection and libraries. However, there is a widespread consensus that the implementation of council tax is flawed. The house prices it is based on haven't changed since 1991 despi...

'Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.' More than ever, the COVID crisis has bought the NHS and the vital role it plays to the fore. However, after more than a year of unprecedented pressure, it faces long waiting lists, staffing shortages and inadequate funding. What challenges will the NHS face in the future? How can it tackle these issues? And what can government do to help?  Joining us...

In September 1999, Tony Blair set a goal for 50% of young adults to attend higher education institutions in the UK. In 2019, twenty years after the policy was announced, university attendance tipped over the 50% threshold. However, in a world where many graduates work in non-graduate jobs, and where successive governments seek to develop further education in the UK, many have questioned the wisdom...

Since the start of the COVID pandemic, the government has stepped in to pay the wages of millions of workers through the furlough scheme. As restrictions ease, and economic life begins to recover, we ask what changes COVID brought to the labour market, and what jobs could look like in future. This week, we speak with Sarah O'Connor, Employment Columnist at the Financial Times, and Jonathan Cribb,...

Business rates are charged on non-domestic properties, such as shops, offices, pubs, factories and warehouses, and raise around 3% government's revenue. At the start of the COVID pandemic, the government waived business rates for most businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. But the tax will start again from summer. As the high street reopens, we ask what effect business rates ha...

The COVID-19 crisis has brought to the fore increasing concerns about inequalities not only between different population groups – such as the gap between the rich and poor, young and old, and different ethnic groups – but also between people living in different  places . Even prior to the crisis though, there was a sense that the UK is not only a highly geographically unequal country, but als...

In the past decade, the UK has seen some of the slowest rates of productivity growth of the OECD countries, with output per hour and real wages no higher today than they were prior to the global financial crisis. Why is a high-tech, developed economy like the UK struggling to be more productive? What policies can government implement to get productivity growing again? And how can we spur innovatio...

Universal Credit is a benefit for working-age people, which combines six existing benefits payments into one payment. Launched in 2013, there are now about 5 million households claiming Universal Credit in the UK. What was the thinking behind this new policy? Has it been successful? And how has COVID affected the trajectory of Universal Credit? This week, Paul speaks with Charlotte Pickles, Direct...

The Spring 2021 Budget will be the first one since the UK entered a series of lockdowns and Great Britain left the EU's Single Market and Customs Union. The Chancellor has immediate decisions to make over many aspects of the emergency support packages that will otherwise expire soon. In addition there is a clear need for policies to help the economy to recover and to adjust to a post-Covid, post-B...

By the time the pandemic is over, most children across the UK will have missed over half a year of normal, in-person schooling. That’s likely to be more than 5% of their entire time in school. What are the effects of this lost learning? How is it impacting students and teachers? What can policymakers do to make up for lost learning? Here to discuss are Luke Sibieta, IFS Research Fellow, and Becky...

The UK has committed to achieving net zero by 2050. To achieve this, nearly all sections of the economy will have to undergo significant changes - from trade and transport, to agriculture and construction. What will this shift look like? How easy will it be to transition? What role will government play in driving net zero? Here to talk through these issues is Chris Stark, Chief Executive of the UK...

For many, inequality has become the dominant lens through which to understand our society. The coronavirus crisis and political upheavals in the US and UK have shone a harsh light on the increasing inequalities we face, and prove that not everyone is affected equally.  In our first episode of 2021, we speak with Nobel Laureate Sir Angus Deaton, Professor of Economics at Princeton University a...

It’s now cliché to say that 2020 has been unprecedented, but the COVID-19 crisis has turned the lives of billions of us worldwide upside down. From record-level UK government borrowing and a furlough scheme paying the wages of many workers, to society-wide lockdowns and a seemingly ever-shifting regime of tiers, 2020 is a year like no other. As we say goodbye to 2020 and ready ourselves for 2...

As the UK has been dealing with coronavirus pandemic this year, we have also been moving closer to the realities of our new relationship with the European Union, and the end of the Brexit transition period on January 1st, 2021. What does this mean for our future trading relationships with the EU and beyond? What happens if there is No Deal? Joining Paul this week is Professor L. Alan Winters, Prof...

We often hear about inflation in the news, whether it has gone up or down, and how this impacts the price of everyday goods. But what do economists mean by inflation, how do they measure it, and is inflation the best way of understanding the changes in the price of goods? This week we speak with Martin O'Connell, Deputy Research Director at IFS and author of a recent paper looking at grocery price...

There has been significant analysis of the furlough scheme in the wake of COVID-19, but far less attention has been paid to the welfare system and how benefits are being affected by the pandemic. The temporary increases to working age benefits implemented this year take total welfare spending to record levels, though the UK’s support system is still thin by international standards. This episode, w...

Government borrowing is never far from the headlines, and in the current crisis, has been a central mechanism for the government to fund its economic support measures. There are many questions around the current level of government debt, whether it is too high, what the long-term implications are and if the government can continue to borrow at its current level. This week we speak with David Miles...

The COVID-19 pandemic and the public health measures implemented to contain it will lead to a huge spike in government borrowing this year. This week we released our annual Green Budget report analysing the impact the coronavirus crisis has had across different sectors of the economy and the big decisions confronting the Chancellor. In this episode, we speak with Green Budget chapter authors Ben N...

Older workers are one group of people who are at risk of suffering serious and persistent consequences from the economic turmoil arising from the coronavirus pandemic. Previous research has shown that unemployment shocks have persistent effects on the employment and incomes of older workers. In particular, older individuals who lose their jobs are less likely to secure re-employment, or to find a...

The COVID pandemic has created huge uncertainly for students returning to university. Have student numbers remained stable in the face of the COVID-19 crisis? Has the A Level results debacle had an impact on admissions? Should students be paying full rates for an online-only experience? How are university finances doing more generally in the face of the coronavirus crisis? In this episode, we spea...

A socially mobile country provides equal opportunities for everyone, across big cities and small towns, and regardless of whether your parents are rich or poor. Social mobility is never far from the front pages; discussions around education, geographic and intergenerational inequalities and jobs affect everyone. Joining us this week is Lindsey MacMillan, Director of the new Centre for Educati...

The coronavirus pandemic has brought new and severe pressures on the UK economy. The challenge now facing Her Majesty’s Treasury will be how to balance the need for increasing revenues through taxes with stimulating much-needed economic growth. This week, our host and IFS Director Paul Johnson speaks to Helen Miller, Deputy Director of the IFS and expert on tax policy, to discuss how the...

The closures of childcare providers to most families during the COVID-19 crisis have underlined the importance of access to childcare, both to support paid work and to help shape young children’s environment. However, the crisis has had severe consequences for the finances of childcare providers, which were already weak in several parts of the sector going into the crisis. Despite a range of gover...

While most things have changed in 2020, the end of the summer will once again see students preparing to go back to school. But this year’s return to school will be unlike any that has come before; for many students, it will have been more than five months since they last attended school in person. Reopening schools has been contentious, but the Department for Education in England – partly motivate...

Recently, students got their A Level results, despite having never sat an exam. How did the government decide what grades to give students? What methodology did they use? How has this affected the distribution of results? This week, we speak with Jack Britton, Associate Director at IFS and expert on education, to get to the bottom of how this year's A Level results were calculated. Hosted on Acast...