In Autumn 2001, the government finalised its proposals for the introduction of the Pension Credit in 2003. Since the initial plans, the Government has significantly changed the way in which pensioners' savings will be treated by the new benefit, and has also decided to couple the reform to significant increases in the generosity of housing benefit for pensioners. This work updates earlier IFS research, evaluating these modified proposals, asking who is likely to gain, and assessing the likely effect on pensioner poverty, on savings incentives and on the public finances.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, a variety of financial incentives encouraged a growing proportion of the workforce to retire or leave the labour market early. But this upward trend in early retirement is very unlikely to continue, according to new research by Professor Richard Blundell to be presented at the Westminster Economics Forum on Friday 8 February. Indeed, recent changes to public and private pension schemes are swiftly reducing incentives for the vast majority of men and women to retire early.

The IFS Green Budget 2002 examines the options open to the Chancellor in his forthcoming Budget. Can the Government's current spending plans be sustained without further tax increases? What changes to National Insurance and income tax are open to the Chancellor, and what would the revenue and distributional implications of any tax increases be? What issues remain in the design of the R&D tax credit for larger firms? What might the costs and effects of the new Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit, Child Trust Fund and Saving Gateway be? What issues arise in the design of a graduate tax?

The Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice is launched today.

IFS research reveals that a downward trend in public investment dates from the mid-1970s and continued through both the 1979-97 Conservative Governments and the early years of the new Labour administration - in 1999 public investment hit a new post-war low.

This research analyses two new tax credits that the Government wants to introduce in 2003: the employment tax credit for low-wage workers and the integrated child credit for families with children. The integrated child credit will bring together existing support for children, but the employment tax credit will offer entirely new support to low-paid workers without children.

New research is published looking at pension systems in ten OECD countries and comparing how the systems have been reformed. The work focuses on the incomes that pensioners actually receive in each of these countries, and the future cost and sustainability of the pension systems that they currently have in place.

New work published by IFS looks at two asset-based welfare policies and asks how they might work and what rationale lies behind them.

The Government published its annual report on low income households. The report shows the number of people, including children and pensioners, in poverty up to April 2000. IFS has used the information underlying the official report to undertake a study of the overall income distribution.

A new Working Paper from the IFS re-evaluates the impact of the New Deal for young people on employment. It focuses on the job assistance and job subsidy element of the programme. The study places the policy in a historical context, showing the similarities between the job assistance element of the New Deal and the Restart compulsory job interviews introduced in 1986.