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Mike Brewer

Mike Brewer

Research Fellow

CV
Alternative webpage
ORCID
0000-0003-0759-0384
Education

MSc Economics and Econometrics (Distinction), University of Bristol, 1997
BA Economics and Mathematics (1st class), University of Cambridge, 1996

Mike is a Professor of Economics at the University of Essex. His main research interests are in how welfare benefits, labour market programmes and the tax system affects decisions made by households. He has written widely about welfare reform, and especially the changes to social security benefits and tax credits proposed by the current UK Government. He has been a long-time proponent of a simpler and more integrated welfare system, and his work on an integrated benefit system has been acknowledged as having informed current government policy.

Academic outputs

Journal article | Economics Letters
A method for decomposing the impact of reforms on the long-run income distribution, with an application to universal credit
Income inequality, as well as the impact of tax and benefit reforms on it, has typically been evaluated with respect to ‘snapshot’ incomes, measured over short periods such as one week or year.
IFS Working Paper W20/9
Does more free childcare help parents work more?
Many governments are considering expanding childcare subsidies to increase the labour force participation of parents (especially mothers) with young children.

Reports and comment

Briefing note
Universal credit and its impact on household incomes: the long and the short of it
In this research we investigate who wins and loses from universal credit, and by how much. For the first time, we also look at the effects of universal credit on people’s incomes over eight years of their lives, rather than just at a point in time. This lets us look at the impact on those that ...
Briefing note
Progression and retention in the labour market: what have we learned from IWC and ERA?
We examine the effectiveness of two time-limited in-work benefits. These were introduced in Great Britain in the early to mid 2000s and were known as ‘in work credit’ (IWC) and the ‘Employment Retention and Advancement demonstration’ (ERA).

Presentations

Presentation
Inequality and the very rich: what do we know?
At this event, speaker set out what we know, and what we need to know, about the very rich in the UK. Using a mixture of data from household surveys and data from tax authorities, the speakers looked at various characteristics of those at the top of the income distribution.
Presentation
A look back at In Work Credit and ERA: do financial incentives encourage retention?
This presentation was given by Mike Brewer at "Retention and progression in work: What do we still need to know?" on 24 May 2017.