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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
12 July 2006
This paper examines tthe effect of ill health on retirement decisions in Britain, using the British Household Panel Survey (1991-1998).
07 July 2006
Individuals who are 50–59 years-old and from the poorest fifth of the population are over 10 times more likely to die than their peers from the richest fifth.
07 July 2006
Panayotes Demakakos
Presentation at the launch of the report covering the second wave of the ELSA survey.
07 July 2006
Elizabeth Breeze and Mary Pierce
Presentation at the launch of the report covering the second wave of the ELSA survey.
07 July 2006
Felicia Huppert, David Llewellyn and Brenda McWilliams
Presentation at the launch of the report covering the second wave of the ELSA survey.
07 July 2006
James Banks, Elizabeth Breeze, Carli Lessof and James Nazroo (eds)
This report covers the second wave of data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a survey of people of 50 and over in England.
06 July 2006
Mike Brewer, James Browne and Holly Sutherland
This study forecasts the prospects for child poverty in 2010/11 and 2020/21 under current government policies, and illustrates the impact of various tax and benefit policies that could be implemented in 2010 and 2020.
17 May 2006
When household spending, rather than income, is used to measure living standards, relative poverty in Britain has risen, rather than fallen, since 1997.
17 May 2006
Much of the recent policy debate surrounding poverty in Britain focuses on income as a measure of living standards. In this report we consider one alternative to income for measuring poverty that has been largely overlooked in the mainstream poverty debate in the UK: namely household expenditure.
17 May 2006
These slides were presented at the launch of the publication, Household Spending in Britain: what can it teach us about poverty?
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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.