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Inequality, poverty and well-being
The distribution of income, consumption and wealth continues to be a central area of IFS research. Amongst the many aspects of our work in this area, we seek to chart, explain, and understand changes in inequality in wages, earnings, incomes and consumption, in the UK and other countries; we also seek to examine the effectiveness of a wide range of policies aimed at reducing poverty - including taxes and benefits, and other types of policy interventions - both at home and abroad.

Our research is also concerned with the welfare implications of changes both to inequality and poverty. These depend on how far they are caused by permanent changes in the relative standings of individuals in the income distribution (e.g. a change in the return to certain skills caused by technical progress) or by changes in the frequency of short-lived events (e.g. temporary layoffs), as well as the availability to individuals of specific insurance and other mechanisms to mitigate unexpected events.

 To get an idea of where you fit into the income distribution, try our interactive model, which will plot your position on the distributional graph. You can also download a spreadsheet containing some key figures about inequality.

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Year: 443 publications
19 October 2011
This article looks at the likely impact of the government's policies on social mobility.
18 October 2011
BN120
The inflation figures for September 2011 released this week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are important, because they affect how the tax and benefit system will look in 2012-13.
11 October 2011
A new forecast of income poverty among children and working-age adults in the UK has been published today by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
11 October 2011
C121
This Commentary presents forecasts of relative and absolute income poverty in the UK among children and working-age adults for each year between 2010-11 and 2015-16, and for 2020-21.
10 October 2011
Our analysis shows that, for all the government's targets, there is no plan to stop child poverty's rise.
15 September 2011
The recession that started more than three years ago has taken some time to impact on household income, but the pain has only been postponed and not avoided.
12 September 2011
The UK recently experienced its worst recession for over sixty years, and large falls in GDP were seen across many other developed countries.
01 September 2011
The UK recently experienced its deepest recession since the Second World War, during which GDP fell by over 6 per cent between the first quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2009. We would naturally expect these falls in national income to have consequences for UK households' living standards. In this chapter, we examine how earnings, employment and household incomes evolved immediately before, during and after the Great Recession in the UK.
18 August 2011
20 July 2011
W11/12
This paper examines changes in health and disability related transfers in the UK over the last thirty years, and describes how they are related to changes in labour force participation.
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Browse publications & research

Impact on Society
Research told policymakers that, despite greater expenditure on health care, Americans are less healthy than their English counterparts.
IFS researchers have monitored the extent to which some households experience higher rates of inflation than others.
The IFS has made valuable contributions to the debate on VAT and its impact on the poor.
The IFS played a key role in the debate about who the tax and benefit changes in recent ‘Emergency Budget’ hit hardest.
IFS analysis forms an important input into the public debate about child and pensioner poverty and what policies are best suited to tackle these.
IFS evaluated the Pathways to Work programme. This work proved key to the policy debate about how to get disability benefit claimants in work.
IFS researchers played an important role in the analysis underlying the findings of the National Equality Panel set up by the Labour Government.
Extensive research on inequality allowed us to develop an online model where users can plot their position in the income distribution.
IFS develops data on food prices and nutrition to build capacity for policy-relevant social science research.
In a tough economic climate IFS looks at how households are able to cope.
An IFS economist advised a “Citizens Jury” on the welfare system, including basic facts and important issues about its purpose and structure.
IFS researchers develop a model of the Mexican tax system that will be used by the Mexican Government analysts.
IFS researchers and the World Bank plan to develop capacity and tools in developing countries for the comprehensive analysis of tax reforms
IFS researchers have investigated whether it is possible to measure the distributional impact of changes to spending on public services.
IFS researchers have investigated the relative merits of government policies designed to protect elderly households from the coldest winters.