The coronavirus pandemic has brought new and severe pressures on the UK economy. The challenge now facing Her Majesty’s Treasury will be how to balance the need for increasing revenues through taxes with stimulating much-needed economic growth. This week, our host and IFS Director Paul Johnson speaks to Helen Miller, Deputy Director of the IFS and expert on tax policy, to discuss how the Treasury might raise revenues in the future and how our current tax system can be reformed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The closures of childcare providers to most families during the COVID-19 crisis have underlined the importance of access to childcare, both to support paid work and to help shape young children’s environment. However, the crisis has had severe consequences for the finances of childcare providers, which were already weak in several parts of the sector going into the crisis. Despite a range of government support programmes, many providers lost income during lockdown. In the medium term, a longer-lasting fall in demand for childcare or an increase in costs related to social distancing could seriously hamper financial sustainability in the sector going forward. This week, we speak with Christine Farquharson, Senior Research Economist at IFS and Claire Crawford, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Birmingham and IFS Research Fellow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While most things have changed in 2020, the end of the summer will once again see students preparing to go back to school. But this year’s return to school will be unlike any that has come before; for many students, it will have been more than five months since they last attended school in person. Reopening schools has been contentious, but the Department for Education in England – partly motivated by research showing the challenges from home learning and the growing inequalities it has brought – has signalled its determination for all students to return come September. This will be a decisive shift from a period in which schools were open for some year groups, some of the time, with some families choosing to attend while others stayed home. This week we are joined by Angela Donkin, Chief Social Scientist, at the National Foundation For Educational Research (NFER) and Sarah Cattan, Associate Director at IFS in the Education and Skills sector. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recently, students got their A Level results, despite having never sat an exam.How did the government decide what grades to give students? What methodology did they use? How has this affected the distribution of results?This week, we speak with Jack Britton, Associate Director at IFS and expert on education, to get to the bottom of how this year's A Level results were calculated. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the last five months the country has, understandably, been focused on the health and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is already having a huge effect on the economy, on employment and on the public finances. All the while, though, the government has been preparing for the reality of Brexit; not the formal Brexit that happened back in January, but the new trading relationship which will come into force at the end of this year. That too, whatever the final deal, will cause deep and fundamental changes to our economy and to jobs, earnings and incomes.In this episode, we speak to Peter Levell, Senior Research Economist at IFS and expert in the economics of Brexit, to look at how the significant change in our trading relationship with Europe will affect the UK. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted concerns about inequalities. This is not only about gaps between rich and poor, young and old and between different ethnic groups. It is also about the differences between people living in different places. Even prior to the crisis, there was a sense that the UK is a highly geographically unequal country and that this inequality is increasing. In this episode, we explore these geographical inequalities with David Phillips, Associate Director at IFS and an expert on devolved and local government finance.Inequality: The IFS Deaton Review is funded by the Nuffield Foundation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recent decades have seen rising wealth-to-income ratios. In England, increases in wealth have been concentrated among older generations. Those born in the 1980s have accumulated no more wealth than those born in the 1970s had done by the same age, but the parents of those born in the 1980s hold 40% more wealth than the parents of those born in the 1970s held at the same age. One consequence is that inherited wealth is on course to be a much more important determinant of lifetime resources for today’s young than it was for previous generations. In this episode we speak to James Banks, Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester and Senior Research Fellow at IFS, and David Sturrock, Senior Research Economist. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week - in the Summer Economic Update - the Chancellor announced another significant spending package. In normal times, even in times of recession, this package would have been seen as huge. But, of course, these are not normal times and this is no normal recession. Joining us this week to discuss the spending package is Helen Miller, Deputy Director at the IFS and Chris Giles, Economics Editor at the Financial Times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The government has pledged to make 'levelling up' a core part of their policy agenda. To achieve this, they have promised increased investment spending and infrastructure spending. What is investment spending? Why is investment so much lower now than it was 40 or 50 years ago? How does this relate to recent announcements from the government, and the response to the pandemic? Joining us today, Professor Sir Tim Besley, Professor of Economics at LSE and member of the National Infrastructure Commission, and Ben Zaranko, Research Economist at IFS. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The effect of the COVID-19 crisis on the economy has been huge. National income fell by 20% in April, to a level last seen in the early 2000s. But the impact of this vast aggregate shock on the finances of different households will vary widely. In this episode, we ask how household incomes were looking before the crisis, how they've been impacted during the lockdown and what we think they could look like in future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.