Aims and methods (as at End of Award): The project aimed to extend the IFS portfolio of research on fiscal policy to consider issues relating to public expenditure as well as taxation. The focus was to be on four areas of public expenditure: education, social security, health and defence. As with IFS research on taxation , it was intended that the issues to be addressed should be relevant to policy choices, but the focus should be on medium-term issues rather than an analysis of year-to year policy adjustments or short-term forecasting. The aim of the research was to apply the types of models, methods of analysis and data sources used in IFS taxation research to analyse: 1. medium-term influences on spending; eg. the impact of demographic changes, conjunctural factors such as unemployment, growth in real incomes, and individuals' use of private sector alternatives. 2. financing issues: medium term trends in tax revenues,and the scope for the use of charging mechanisms for certain services. 3. the implications of encouraging private provision in some areas which are currently the province of the public sector.