This paper investigates the impact of inheritances and gifts received on the distribution of wealth among older households in England, and the implications for inequality in lifetime incomes. Whereas previous work has looked only at marketable wealth, we consider broader measures including...

This paper estimates the effects of entering the labour market when the economy is weak on subsequent living standards using consistent long-running household survey data from the UK. In line with previous research, we find persistent scarring effects on employment and earnings. However, we also...

What explains the variation in how income changes as people age? Using household panel data, we investigate the contribution of different time-varying factors in explaining variation in income changes over prime working-age life (between 35-44 and 50-59). We find that demographic changes, such...

We study earnings and income inequality in Britain over the past two decades, including the period of relatively "inclusive" growth from 1997-2004 and the Great Recession. We focus on the middle 90%, where trends have contrasted strongly with the "new inequality" at the very top. Household...

The pensioner population a decade from now is likely to look different to today's population. There will not only be more pensioners but those retiring over the next few years will have experienced different economic conditions in their working lives, been subject to a different policy...

Prices of real and financial assets fell substantially in the UK during 2008–09. The fourth wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) was in the field throughout this ‘financial crisis’. We use these data and earlier ELSA waves first to document the effect of...

The paper examines how individuals respond to complex decision-making environments – in particular, whether up-front financial incentives are an effective policy lever to change behaviour. The paper argues that incentives differ in their transparency and in their complexity; individuals...

This working paper describes how the IFS’s model of the UK’s long-run public finances (and those of its constituent nations) is constructed. Our model projects tax revenues, public spending and hence public borrowing and debt up to 2062–63. This is done for the UK as a whole...

We examine ill-health retirement of police officers in England and Wales between 2002-3 and 2009-10. Differences in ill-health retirement rates across forces are statistically related to area-specific stresses of policing and force-specific differences in human resources policies. Reforms to...

The paper investigates the short run responsiveness of National Health Service (NHS) nurses' labour supply to changes in wages of NHS nurses relative to wages in outside options available to nurses, utilising the panel data aspect of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. We find the short run...