Living Standards

Understand this issue

Sure Start achieved its aims, then we threw it away

comment

"We know that poor children grow up with poor life chances. We know how to ameliorate that. The choice is ours." Paul Johnson writes for the Times.

15 April 2024

Social mobility and wealth

presentation

IFS researchers shared findings from ESRC-funded research on social mobility and its drivers.

12 December 2023

How important is the Bank of Mum and Dad?

explainer

Paul Johnson talks us through patterns of financial help for first-time buyers.

15 December 2023

Policy analysis

Living standards since the last election

report

New income statistics suggest this parliament is on course to be the worst for living standards on record.

21 March 2024

Major challenges for education in Wales

report

This report examines the major challenges for education in Wales, including low outcomes across a range of measures and high levels of inequality.

21 March 2024

Sliding education results and high inequalities should prompt big rethink in Welsh education policy

press release

This report examines the major challenges for education in Wales, including low outcomes across a range of measures and high levels of inequality.

21 March 2024

Academic research

Labour market inequality and the changing life cycle profile of male and female wages

working paper

We estimate the distribution of life cycle wages for cohorts of prime-age men and women in the US.

15 April 2024

Measuring wellbeing growth and convergence in multivariate ordered categorical worlds: Has there been any levelling up in the United Kingdom?

working paper

Whilst there is strong evidence of growth, the results indicate that there is little evidence of "levelling up" type growth in the United Kingdom.

21 December 2023

There and back again: women’s marginal commuting costs

working paper

We estimate female and male workers’ marginal willingness to pay to reduce commuting distance in Germany.

2 April 2024