Topics

Consumption and prices

Our work in this area looks at how consumers respond to price signals and other incentives to change their borrowing, saving and spending behaviour, as well as how different households' welfare is affected by inflation and changes in indirect taxes.

Showing 61 – 80 of 731 results

What you should be paying attention to in 2022

Podcast

As 2022 starts, we speak to four IFS experts and find out what we should be looking out for this year.

12 January 2022

Rationalizability, cost-rationalizability, and Afriat’s eﬃciency index

Working Paper

This note explains the equivalence between approximate rationalizability and approximate cost-rationalizability within the context of consumer demand.

11 January 2022

The cost of living crisis – who is hit by recent price increases?

Comment

This observation looks at how today’s high inflation figures are affecting different income groups.

17 November 2021

Price floors and externality correction

Working Paper

We evaluate the impact of a price floor for alcohol introduced in Scotland in 2018.

15 November 2021

Consumption spending in the wake of the pandemic

Report

This briefing note compares trends in output, consumer spending and saving from the 2020 recession with those from two previous recessions beginning in 1990 and 2008.

12 November 2021

How should the government influence what we eat?

Podcast

What role should the government play in influencing what we eat? And how can taxes and policy be designed to get us to eat more healthily?

22 October 2021

The Chancellor should reform alcohol taxes in the Budget

Comment

Press reports suggest that the Chancellor is planning an overhaul of the UK’s system of alcohol duties. The current system, which raises about £12 billion a year, is certainly ripe for reform.

19 October 2021

Optimal sin taxation and market power

Working Paper

This paper studies the design of sin taxes when firms exercise market power.

21 September 2021

MPCs in an economic crisis: spending, saving and private transfers

Working Paper

MPCs were directly elicited from a sample of UK adults in July 2020 using receipt of a hypothetical unanticipated, one-time income payment.

23 August 2021

The impact of a tax on added sugar and salt

Working Paper

We demonstrate the range of impacts a tax on added sugar and salt could have on purchases of food at home and out of the home in the UK.

15 July 2021

The dietary impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Working Paper

We use novel data on the food and non-alcoholic drink purchases to quantify the impact of the pandemic on the diets of British households.

1 July 2021

The decline of home cooked food

Working Paper

We consider a simple model of food consumption and time use which captures the driving forces behind the decline of home-cooked food.

14 June 2021

Preparing for a pandemic: spending dynamics and panic buying during the COVID-19 first wave

Journal article

We study consumer spending dynamics during one such time, the first infection wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, using household scanner data covering fast-moving consumer goods in the United Kingdom.

9 June 2021

Protecting sticky consumers in essential markets

Working Paper

This paper studies regulatory policy interventions aimed at protecting sticky consumers who are exposed to exploitation.

27 April 2021

Tax Evasion and the Minimum Wage

Presentation

Presentation of "Tax Evasion and the Minimum Wage" at the OECD Economics Department.

11 February 2021

MPCs through COVID: spending, saving and private transfers

Working Paper

MPCs were directly elicited from a representative sample of UK adults in July 2020 using receipt of a hypothetical unanticipated, one-time income payment. Reported MPCs are low, around 11% on average.

5 February 2021

Changing consumer behaviour has big implications for councils, not just businesses, and especially for those in major cities

Comment

Last week, the IFS published research on how the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on consumer spending and behaviour has varied across the country. In a new observation, we consider the implications of this research for local government.

21 December 2020

The geographic impact of the pandemic on household spending

Report

The past nine months have seen huge swings in households’ spending, both in total and across various goods and services. In this briefing note, we analyse the geographical patterns of these changes.

17 December 2020