This commentary looks at the impact of taxing child benefit under a number of scenarios. This involves analysis of the amount of revenue raised, the distributional impact of using this revenue to increase the rate of child benefit and the administrative issues encountered under particular tax treatments. In addition, the commentary examines the implications of taxing child benefit for the future direction of tax system reform.

This commentary assesses the impact of capping on local service provision. In particular it addresses the following questions. What factors determine desired local spending? Did capping constrain spending by local councils? Which local services bore the brunt of any cuts? Did the quality of local services suffer as a result?

This Commentary looks at public pay in detail, tracing its trend relative to the private sector over the 1980s and 1990s and showing how the gap in pay between the public and private sectors differs dramatically across occupations, gender and education groups. These findings illustrate how misleading comparisons of public and private sector pay based on aggregate data can be.

This commentary asks whether a productivity gap is really the problem facing Britain. Do lower levels of output per worker suggest greater inefficiency or do they reflect differences in levels of inputs? Historically low levels of investment suggest that our stock of R&D, physical and human capital may be lower than it is in the other main industrialised countries.

This report provides a response to the government's proposals. Is the current local government system likely to discourage "over-spending" by councils in the absence of capping powers? Will the government's proposals make the link between local spending decisions and Council Tax bills clearer to voters? Can measures to encourage councils to respond to the views of their residents be successful in making councils more accountable to local people?.

In this commentary, the authors examine public support for more local decision making and increased freedom for local councils to raise council tax levels. They also assess whether local voters would support higher spending on local services such as schools, housing and the police if they had to pay for it directly through higher council tax bills.

As the government nears the end of a consultation process on charity taxation, this commentary considers some of the key issues in the debate. What are the economic arguments for tax relief? Is there any evidence that tax incentives have a big effect on individual donations? What has been the impact of tax incentives in the UK? What are so-called `US-style tax deductions’ and how might they work in the UK? What other reforms to the current system of tax relief might the government consider?

In this Commentary, the authors look at the likely effects that real year-by-year increases in road fuel duties will have on the use of cars by households and on their economic welfare, with particular attention to the distributional consequences.

As the Government considers what form the ISA should take, this Commentary documents the current state of savings and, in particular, the current tax treatment of savings. In the light of the experience of TESSAs and PEPS, we also consider several key features that the new Individual Savings Account might have.