This paper examines the impact of the UK housing benefit system on the financial returns to employment of people in local authority or Housing Association accommodation. It outlines the current structure of housing benefit and examines its effects on the returns to employment using data from the...

From the middle of the 1980s until the end of that decade, the government experienced a growing economy and consequently buoyant tax revenues. In addition to cutting the public sector borrowing requirement (PSBR) and increasing spending, these revenues were used as a means of financing massive...

Building on previous work, this paper documents the changes in income inequality that have occurred over the past 20 years, right up until the late 1990s. In particular, we are interested in whether or not the path of inequality in the most recent economic cycle differed from that observed in...

The government’s report, Opportunity for All: Tackling Poverty and Social Exclusion (Department of Social Security, 1999), identified poor health as one of the major problems associated with low income. However, much of the available evidence on the relationship between income and health is of...

Childcare subsidies are typically advocated as a means to making paid employment profitable for mothers, but also have important ramifications for the use and quality of paid childcare. Even if one is concerned primarily with the quantity aspect, the quality dimension cannot be ignored. This...

In this paper we examine the labour market impact of the proposed new earned income tax credit - Working Families Tax Credit - in the U.K. Family labour supply behaviour is modelled as a discrete choice among a finite set of hours alternatives. Our estimation strategy allows for a random...

The tax system in the UK has developed through numerous ad hoc changes to its structure. This has resulted in a situation where the way in which the tax system is described does not readily correspond to the marginal rate schedule actually faced by taxpayers. This paper outlines the connection...

A tax and benefit model is a computer program that calculates the effects of possible changes in the fiscal system on a sample of households. By using a sample which is representative of the population, such models allow users to make accurate inferences about the aggregate revenue implications...