This week, debate over the Government's Welfare Reform Bill has returned to the House of Commons. An element that has grabbed a lot of attention is the proposed benefit cap for working-age households (excluding those claiming Disability Living Allowance or Working Tax Credit), which will be set at £350 per week for childless single people and £500 per week for other households. This is now expected to affect about 67,000 households in Great Britain when implemented in 2013-14, reducing their benefit entitlement by an average of £83 per week and cutting the benefits bill by about £290 million in that year.

Earlier this month the European Commission outlined proposals aimed at making the EU VAT system simpler, more efficient and more robust. If fully realised, complying with VAT procedures, particularly when trading across borders, would be considerably simpler, and the system should be more robust to fraud: hence, the plans represent a genuine improvement. However, significant problems like the plethora of goods and services not subject to the full rate of VAT look set to remain, despite efforts to discourage their use.

The UN Climate Change Conference begins in Durban, South Africa, on the 28th November. One of its primary aims is to reach agreement on ways to reduce carbon emissions. Good policy is required to achieve reductions efficiently, including a consistent (preferably global) carbon price. However, a consistent price does not currently exist. Within the UK, there are a myriad of policies in place which create substantial divergences in effective carbon prices. We have some way to go to get the basics right for an efficient national policy; the global challenges will be much greater.

The UK Government has reformed beer duties and plans to ban the sale of alcohol in England and Wales for less than the total tax liable. These changes are minor: each affects just 1% of off-licence alcohol units sold. In Scotland, the Government has introduced a minimum alcohol pricing Bill which, if introduced across Britain, would directly affect the vast majority of off-licence drinkers and could transfer large sums to alcohol producers and retailers. But it is not clear that a minimum price is particularly well targeted and it may be preferable to increase drink prices by raising taxes and transferring money to the national coffers.

Figures released today show that corporate tax receipts fell by 6.9% in October this year, compared to the same month last year. This observation highlights the recent trends in corporate tax revenues and discusses what is known about companies' tax payments.

In a speech made yesterday, the leader of the Labour party, Ed Miliband, accused the coalition's corporate tax policies of "rigging" the tax system against manufacturing and long term investment. This observation discusses how the package of measures will alter the tax burden and affect the UK's competitiveness.

Yesterday, the Government published a 'call to action' which lays out its strategy for tackling obesity in England. One approach to tackling diet related health problems, which governments are increasingly turning to, is the use of fiscal measures. We look at some of the issues involved in designing a 'fat tax' and under what circumstances such a policy may be effective.

Randomised trials have helped to shape policy in the developing world. Drawing on examples, we argue that it's time the UK made better use of this important tool for evidence-based policymaking.

Yesterday the International Monetary Fund published its latest Fiscal Monitor, which surveys public finance developments across the world and updates their fiscal projections. Here we look at some of the main fiscal projections and take stock of how the planned fiscal consolidation in the UK compares to those currently planned in other advanced economies.

China has experienced unprecedented investment in skills and science, which has resulted in rapid growth in innovative outputs. New evidence suggests that Chinese inventors have the capacity to engage in research at the technology frontier. Such trends have fuelled widespread concerns over Western economies' ability to maintain their dominance in knowledge creation and high skill employment. However, innovation is not a zero-sum game; the success of China need not be at the expense of the West.