Reports

Through the lottery of birth, children are born into different socio-economic circumstances and grow up in environments that are remarkably different from each other. This report looks at inequalities in early childhood in the UK.

This report brings together new evidence on these issues to examine the recent trends in, and prospects for, the labour market for people in their 50s and 60s.

We quantify the impact of increasing the state pension age from 65 to 66 on household incomes, poverty and public finances, after – in particular – ta

This report seeks to shed new light on the fall in employment and rise in economic inactivity amongst older people in the UK, with a particular focus on those in their 50s and 60s.

In the last decade, there have been significant cuts to spending on adult education and large falls in the numbers of adult learners, particularly amongst those taking low-level qualifications.

We discuss how the cost of childcare has changed over time, and how it varies across the country and between different types of families.

In this report, we shed light on this question by examining the spending patterns of current retirees in the UK.

Last month the government finally announced how its replacement for EU regional development funding – the Shared Prosperity Fund – will be allocated across the country.

We consider who would be affected by each of the proposed MERs, and then assess whether the introduction of a minimum eligibility requirement is likely to achieve the government’s stated aim of ensuring that ‘students undertaking degree study have attained the baseline skills required to engage with and benefit from the course’.

We reflect on the current state of the labour market and ask whether the composition of jobs demanded looks different in ways which could affect the careers of workers.

We investigate variation in early-career earnings by degree class outcome using the Depart­ment for Education’s Longitudinal Education Outcomes dataset.

At the end of February, the government announced the most significant reform to the student loans system in England since at least 2012.

Leveraging the 2016 demonetisation in India, this article shows that areas that were more impacted by the policy, experienced faster growth in electronic payments and, in turn, average sales reported to the tax authority increased.

We consider key factors that have shaped labour market inequality in the United Kingdom over the last four decades, with a focus on technological changes and skill demand, labour market institutions and contract regulation.

IFS Senior Research Economist Ben Zaranko writes for The Conversation on how the UK's lower defence spending has allowed successive governments to pay for a growing welfare state without a higher tax burden.

This briefing note considers the effects of the government’s proposed amendment to the Care Act, which would mean that means-tested support does not c

The Levelling Up White Paper is just the latest of efforts to tackle regional inequalities. What does it tell us about this government’s approach? And how likely is it to succeed where others have failed?