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The increased adoption of means-tested benefits and tax credits in the UK and elsewhere has refocused employment policy on creating incentives for lower-skilled individuals to gain and retain employment. This has been the subject of increased attention in our research.
There are three main areas where further development is planned. First, labour supply decisions within the family. This area is particularly relevant given the growing importance of in-work benefits and childcare subsidies. Second, incentives in the tax and welfare system for employment retention and earnings enhancement once in the labour market. This is closely allied to the issue of wage progression and our research on human capital accumulation. Third, labour supply decisions for older workers and the complex interactions between early retirement incentives in pension systems, incapacity benefit rules and working opportunities for older people. 
The objectives of this project is to study how individuals' labour supply is affected by the structure of the tax and benefit system and to what extent the different work patterns observed in France, the UK and the US (and how these have changed over time) can be explained by the different tax and benefit structures. The project aims at using household data sets and microsimulation models of tax and benefit systems in a comparable manner across these three countries.
This theme is concerned with transitions both within the compulsory education phase and beyond.
Changes to participation and marginal tax rates, and changes in employment and labour supply will be described, and the changes will be placed in the context of the significant changes to the tax system in the 1980s.
This project investigates the nature of retirement saving. In particular we make use of individual and household level data on patterns of saving and savings.
The principal work on this project has been undertaken by Emma Chamberlain and Professor Judith Freedman.
The study aims to quantify the relationship between ethnicity and labour market outcomes, especially employment entry and benefit exit, for Jobcentre Plus overall and for its programmes and mainstream services. It will also investigate the relative impact in terms of ethnic parity of different Jobcentre Plus programmes.
This project investigates the nature of retirement saving. In particular we make use of the English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing to examine the determinants of retirement saving and retirement ages.
The project will estimate the impact of an extension of the National Minimum Wage to 16 and 17 year olds on their labour market and education choices.
The objective of this project is to evaluate a forthcoming pilot scheme for reforms to incapacity benefit.
This project is being co-ordinated through RAND in California and brings together a large international group of researchers. By using new data and a number of different modeling approaches it aims to improve understanding of retirement decisions particularly considering what makes people reduce their work effort later in life than we have to date.
Preparation and presentation of a paper at an ESRC seminar on “Pensions, Pensioners and Pensions Policy” to also include brainstorming sessions, writing the research booklet and fielding any associated media enquiries.
The centre for economic research on ageing gathers together IFS research about ageing and will take it forward on a coherent basis, targeting the research towards the big policy questions in the economics of ageing. At the heart of the centre is the analysis, and design, of individual level data on all aspects of later life, including economic and social position, health and cognitive function. Such data is becoming increasingly available in many countries and cera researchers are working actively with economists and non-economists both nationally and internationally to bring the analysis of such data to the forefront of the policy debate.
Researchers at IFS monitor the changes in inequality across the population.
This project investigates the extent of constraints on desired hours of work within jobs and the degree of flexibility of the labour market for a sample of women.
Health inequalities among the older population have important implications for a range
of policy issues as our population continues to age.
Working with the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL this project aims to show how pension arrangements and incentives relate to other individual circumstances such as income, wealth, broader measures of socio-economic position, physical and mental health and functioning, the nature of work and leisure activities and family circumstances.
This research involved some secondary analysis of data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) to allow the Pensions Commission to carry out comparisons of a MORI survey with the ELSA data, to provide additional information on the pensions arrangements of LSA respondents and to provide additional information on the expectations of ELSA respondents.
While hedonic models have been used for decades to analyse labour markets, one aspect of the labour market has been neglected.
This strand of research is developing models of life-cycle consumption, labour supply and savings with fixed costs of labour force participation and other such fixed costs.
The research develops models of life-cycle consumption, labour supply and savings with fixed costs of labour force participation and other non-convexities. These non-convexities have important impacts on household intertemporal decision problems because they result in households making choices about consumption, labour force participation, and housing tenure that exhibit discrete jumps in response to changes in the economic environment.
The Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) Demonstration is testing a new strategy for improving job retention and advancement of individuals who are either already employed in low paying jobs or who have newly entered work from benefits.
This work examines in some detail the Department’s new pension simulation model looking at the assumptions that underpin the model and considering how it might be improved.
This research, which is performed in cooperation with the IMF, provides an analysis of the Russian income tax reform of 2001. This reform introduced a flat-rate income tax system. We analyse both its effects on labour supply and on tax compliance.
The aim of the project is to exploit very large and comprehensive new Swedish datasets to evaluate the effects of the Swedish Active Labour Market Programmes (ALMPs) for the unemployed on a variety of labour market outcomes of participants.
Current research is looking at changes in wealth in the over 50 population and continuing to look at consumption around retirement in order to understand the adequacy of retirement saving.
Research in this area has focused on policy design issues arising from recent announcements, and in particular, ISAs and Stakeholder Pensions, Pension Credit, MIG and State Second Pension. Current research continues to look at general and specific issues in pension policy, particularly in the light of the recent Green Paper.
This work updates earlier research looking at the proposals for the Pension Credit.
This project evaluates the government's Sure Start Wraparound pilot projects.
The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing is an exciting new study, the aim of ELSA is to become an interdisciplinary data resource on health, economic position and quality of life as people age.
PEUK is a forum for UK-based academic economists and policy makers interested in the broad area of applied theoretical and empirical analysis of public policy to meet and to exchange ideas.
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