The national non-domestic rate was introduced in 1990 to replace a system of locally varying business rates which had lasted for almost four centuries. Five years after the. 1990 reforms, this report evaluates the operation of the present system and discusses various options for reform.

This paper examines the role of individual and household characteristics in explaining patterns of support for higher public spending on seven of the most important public spending programmes including health, education, the police and defence. Different groups in the population, such as the...

Many parts of the public sector coexist with private provision of similar services and in such circumstances we may expect to find interaction between public and private choices. Quality of publicly provided services will be a central influence on decisions whether to make use of private...