Briefing notes
We produce short briefing notes on current policy issues, drawing on our expertise and research findings.
Briefing note
Are there any common themes in how the current Scottish Government has used these powers? Who are the winners and losers from the reforms it has undertaken? What opportunities has it taken and what difficult decisions has it ducked? And what are some of the key issues for the coming years?
Briefing note
How is Scotland's higher spending allocated across different services? How have these allocations changed over time? And how do a range of headline indicators of public service outcomes vary between Scotland and England?
Briefing note
In this briefing note, we review what this shift in policy means for overall aid spending, effective management of the aid budget, and the broader public finances.
Briefing note
Scottish Government funding per person is over 30% higher than equivalent English funding. But it has still chosen to use temporary COVID funding to pay for some new permanent spending commitments.
Briefing note
This report seeks to set out the potential effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on inequalities in the UK. The pandemic has affected inequalities in education, training, wages, employment and health, including how these vary by gender, ethnicity, and across generations.
Briefing note
This briefing note discusses the impacts of and lessons from the COVID-19 crisis for sub-national government finances, as well as the fiscal roles of and relationships between national, devolved and local government.
Briefing note
The large decline in women’s paid work after childbirth cannot, in general, be explained by couples prioritising the paid work of the higher-wage parent. Put most simply, this is because women are always more likely to stop working after parenthood, regardless of whether or not they were the ...
Briefing note
On 8 March, all pupils in England will return to in-person schooling after what is hopefully the final period of COVID-related blanket school closures.
Briefing note
In this briefing note, we update and extend previous IFS analysis, to consider how employment, incomes, benefit claims and council tax payments have evolved over a longer period and have varied geographically, and draw out key implications for local government.
Briefing note
This short briefing note sets out what we know about those excluded from the government's Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and what options the government has for extending it to them.