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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
24 February 2006
BN69
This Briefing Note compares five recent studies that have examined the labour market impact of the Working Families' Tax Credit and related reforms between 1999 and 2002.
01 January 2006
Orazio Attanasio and Christine Frayne
We study the prices of basic commodities that are relatively homogeneous in some rural communities in Colombia.
13 December 2005
Orazio Attanasio, Luis Carlos Gómez, Patricia Heredia and Marcos Vera-Hernandez
We provide estimates of how the programme has influenced nutrition and health-related indicators for children in the short term, roughly one year after its implementation.
01 November 2005
In this article, we assess what has happened to inequality under Labour, and estimate the impact on inequality of Labour's redistributive policies.
01 August 2005
This document reviews a number of empirical methodologies available to answering policy questions about the relationship between income and child outcomes.
25 May 2005
W05/10
In this study we look at the relationship between income and healthy behaviour over the generations by studying the association between parental income and children's prevalence to smoke in Britain using data from the British Household Panel Survey and British Youth Survey.
26 April 2005
BN63
In this Election Briefing Note, we assess what has happened to living standards under Labour, setting out how average incomes, income inequality and poverty have changed since 1996-97. We compare these changes with what happened under previous governments, and highlight where there have been differences between Labour's first and second terms.
26 April 2005
BN63
In this Election Briefing Note, we assess what has happened to living standards under Labour, setting out how average incomes, income inequality and poverty have changed since 1996-97. We compare these changes with what happened under previous governments, and highlight where there have been differences between Labour's first and second terms.
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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.