This report describes the survey that was carried out in 122 communities in rural Colombia bythe consortium formed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Econometria and SEI as the baselinefor the impact evaluation of Familias en Acción, a programme to foster the accumulation ofhuman capital in rural Colombia, run by the Colombian government.

This is the first wave evaluation report of Familias en Acción, a conditional cash transfer programme.

This is the baseline evaluation report of Familias en Acción, a conditional cash transfer programme.

How and why has the way in which the average British family spends its money changed over the past 25 years? Those are the key questions examined in this report, using data from the UK FES between 1975 and 1999. It looks not only at broad changes in total spending, but also at how the division of expenditure between basics and non-basics and between durable goods, non-durable goods and services has altered over time.

This IFS book (March 2002) reveals that mothers still face substantial hurdles in undertaking paid employment. For those who do manage to work, childcare arrangements are a diverse mixture of carers, cost and quality. Government initiatives to increase the availability of childcare places have a substantial shortfall to address while measures to increase the

This report aims to shed some light on the complex issues that surround this debate. Topics addressed include recent trends in corporate tax systems, costs imposed by having diverse national corporate taxes within Europe, proposals for limited co-ordination of corporate income taxes within the EU and more ambitious options for corporate tax harmonisation.

The gradual shift in responsibility for welfare provision, from the government to individuals, is making household saving and wealth holding a key policy concern.

This report considers sources of bias in cost-of-living and price indices, with particular reference to the UK's retail price index. The sources of bias discussed are caused by the introduction of new goods, quality change in existing goods and commodity substitution by consumers. New methods of quantifying these biases and correcting them are presented with empirical applications.

The report starts from first principles, asking whether there is any need for a benefit to relieve the council tax and identifying problems with the very structure of council tax benefit. It goes on to consider whether council tax benefit succeeds in leaving local tax bills affordable for low-income groups, using data from the FRS. Even after allowing for benefit, it is found that council tax bills pose an especially large burden for elderly people. Further, a widespread failure to take up entitlement to benefit is found to be preventing the benefit's cleverly designed rules from actually helping many of those in most need. The problems identified in the design and performance of council tax benefit motivate the consideration of several reforms, which range from outright abolition to minor simplification.

The report shows what differentiates the individuals in the survey who entered work over a twelve month period from those who remained out of work over the course of a year. It examines how the distribution of hourly wages earned by new entrants into jobs differs from the distribution of wages for those already in work. This `entry wage' information is just used to estimate gains to working for people who are currently unemployed or inactive, and to assess to what extent financial incentives affect entry into work. The report also simulates what the effect of the WFTC, the NI reforms, and the 10p tax rate might be on the numbers of men and women entering work and how these reforms might increase employment.