Briefing notes
We produce short briefing notes on current policy issues, drawing on our expertise and research findings.
Briefing note
This Briefing Note uses linked administrative data to investigate gaps in access to postgraduate degrees. The numbers of students progressing to postgraduate study are increasing rapidly, such qualifications could therefore be an important driver of differences in early career opportunities.
Briefing note
The COVID-19 pandemic has had huge impacts on the UK labour market. To protect households from the most severe consequences of this, the government made temporary changes to the existing social security system and rapidly designed and implemented large new schemes. In this briefing note, we take ...
Briefing note
The COVID-19 crisis has brought to the fore increasing concerns about inequalities not only between different population groups – such as the gap between the rich and poor, young and old, and different ethnic groups – but also between people living in different places. Even prior to the crisis ...
Briefing note
Interest in the issue of career progression has been growing, fuelled by a decade of stagnant productivity and pay growth (even before the COVID-19 crisis) and concerns that changes in the labour market – such as the casualisation of work in the gig economy – are making it harder for some ...
Briefing note
The ongoing COVID-19 crisis poses a significant financial risk to the UK higher education sector. Universities are facing big losses across a range of income sources and investments. These losses could cause serious financial problems, including – in the extreme – insolvency. Most institutions ...
Briefing note
There is growing evidence that economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are particularly negative for young people. On the eve of the coronavirus outbreak, workers aged below 25 were more likely than other workers to be employed in sectors that have been effectively shut down as part of the ...
Briefing note
In this report, we use a novel source of real-time data on households’ finances from Money Dashboard, a budgeting app, to explore the impacts of the crisis so far on earnings, incomes and financial distress, and how they are evolving. We complement this with household survey data to explain and ...
Briefing note
Reports indicate the government is considering a temporary cut in VAT to stimulate consumer demand, possibly targeted at sectors such as tourism and restaurants. Overall the case for a temporary VAT cut now is mixed. It could provide an important fillip to consumer demand if implemented under the ...
Briefing note
Local authorities (LAs) across the country are among those on the front line of the coronavirus crisis. But geographical differences in demographic and economic structures make different parts of the country more vulnerable to different effects of the crisis – on health, on families and children, ...
Briefing note
It is clear that the COVID-19 outbreak – and the public health response to it – will dramatically reduce economic activity in the second quarter of 2020.