We nowcast the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and related lock-down measures in the UK and then analyse the distributional and budgetary effects of the estimated individual income shocks, distinguishing between the effects of automatic stabilisers and those of the emergency policy...

World War Two, rationing, and shortages limited the amount of food and other goods available to households. The new welfare state of Clement Attlee’s Labour Party and derationing were supposed to provide food and other consumption goods to meet the needs of households, but voters were...