Public finance

This article undertakes a quantitative analysis of substantial reforms to the system of higher education finance in England, first announced in 2004 and revised in 2007.

This article looks at the Government's agenda of parental choice and school competition.

This note is based on analysis prepared by IFS at the request of the House of Commons Education and Skills Select Committee, for their inquiry into Public Expenditure on Education and Skills being carried out during June and July 2006.

We develop a test for adverse selection and use it to examine private health insurance markets.

This paper is concerned with the relationship between class size and the student outcome - participation in post-compulsory schooling.

This paper looks at the impact of Opportunity Bursaries on young adults who received payments in 2001-02 and 2002-03.

This paper looks at the impact of the Aimhigher:Excellence Challenge programme on pupils who have been exposed to it for one year.

This paper evaluates whether means-tested grants paid to secondary students are an effective way of reducing the proportion of school dropouts.

This Election Briefing Note compares Labour's proposed reforms to the system of higher education (HE) finance in England and the alternative proposals outlined by the Conservative Party in September 20042 and the Liberal Democrats in January and March 2005.

This commentary compares the university funding of Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. These policies have important implications for students, graduates, universities and taxpayers.

We report an empirical analysis of the responses of the supply and demand for secondary care to waiting list size and waiting times.

Many readers are no doubt currently deciding whether or not to attend higher education.

This Briefing Note looks at the potential for the introduction of a 'fat tax' into the UK in an effort to reduce the growing prevalence of obesity in Britain. This Briefing Note looks at trends in UK obesity and examines evidence on eating habits and exercise in order to see whether trends here can account for what we see happening to obesity. We go on to review some of the key economic reasons behind why we might be concerned about obesity and why we might consider there to be a case for government intervention. We also discuss how food is currently taxed and the various ways in which a 'fat tax' might be introduced, looking at particular issues the government might need to address should it wish to introduce one. We finish by presenting some simple analysis of a hypothetical 'fat tax' in terms of how it might impact differently on the rich and the poor.

The Higher Education (HE) Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons on the 31st of March 2004. Here we suggest one way in which the implementation of the proposals can be simplified.