IFS Online News

In this issue

When Gordon Brown raised taxes and pencilled in spending cuts in last year's Pre-Budget Report, he must have hoped that he was getting the bad fiscal news out of the way for this Parliament. But as we learned in this year's PBR, earlier this month, his luck has yet to change: unexpectedly high inflation and a weaker outlook for North Sea oil revenues knocked a £5bn hole in the public finances that the Chancellor made good with tax increases and a higher estimate of trend growth in the economy. Our Green Budget, produced in association with Morgan Stanley, will (among many topics) assess how plausible the Treasury's new forecasts are and examine the credibility of the fiscal framework in the light of another re-dating of the economic cycle. The findings will be presented at a conference at the British Museum on January 31.

Talking of future events, places at our bi-ennial residential conference in Cambridge on April 12-14 are going fast. The conference will focus on the preliminary work of the Mirrlees Review, which is examining the characteristics of a good tax system in a modern economy and on specific reform opportunities for the UK. This is a golden opportunity to discuss the key issues in tax reform with a world-class list of experts. I hope to see you there.

Robert Chote
Director

PBR 2006

On Wednesday 6th December 2006, the Chancellor made his Pre-Budget statement. IFS held a briefing to present our analysis of this report on the following day, Thursday 7th December.

For further information, including presentation slides, please visit our 2006 PBR page.

Other recent publications

Working papers Wage risk and employment risk over the life cycle Hamish Low, Costas Meghir and Luigi Pistaferri, December 2006 Active labour market policy effects for women in Europe - a survey Annette Bergemann and Gerard van den Berg, December 2006 Inequality and income gaps Ian Preston, December 2006

Briefing notes and reports The UK tax system and the environment Andrew Leicester, November 2006 Options for a UK 'flat tax': some simple simulations Stuart Adam and James Browne, August 2006 Public spending on education in the UK: prepared for the Education and Skills Select Committee Alissa Goodman and Luke Sibieta, July 2006