Policy Choice in Time Series by Empirical Welfare Maximization∗ Toru Kitagawa† Weining Wang‡ Mengshan Xu§ December 9, 2024 Abstract This paper develops a novel method for policy choice in a dynamic setting where

Dec 18, 2024 · The government has published the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025–26, setting out funding allocations for English councils next year.This confirms an important shift in grant funding to councils serving more deprived areas first highlighted in a policy statement at the end of November, but we can now understand the implications for specific councils.

Dec 4, 2024 · David Phillips, an Associate Director and head of devolved and local government finance at the IFS, said: “The Scottish Government has trumpeted a Budget providing record levels of funding for the NHS and councils, universal winter payments for pensioners, and starting the process of ending the two-child cap in universal credit in Scotland.

IFS is the UK’s leading independent economics research institute. We analyse and inform economic and policy decisions with academic rigour and absolute independence.

May 14, 2024 · Key findings. 1. Over this parliament, real-terms UK health spending (i.e. spending adjusted for economy-wide inflation) has grown below the long-term average rate (2.4% per year over this parliament, versus an average of 3.6% over the longer term). But the UK’s poor economic performance means that health spending as a share of national income has increased by more than the long-term average ...

Nov 25, 2024 · The Budget announced a range of changes to inheritance tax, curtailing reliefs for agricultural and business assets, bringing pensions into the scope of inheritance tax and freezing tax-free allowances until 2029–30.

Sep 13, 2022 · Your education has a huge effect on your life chances. As well as being likely to lead to better wages, higher levels of education are linked with better health, wealth and even happiness.It should be a way for children from deprived backgrounds to escape poverty.

Jul 25, 2024 · Key findings What has happened to living standards since the pandemic? 1. Between 2021–22 and 2022–23, median household income before housing costs (BHC) fell by 0.5%.

Oct 10, 2024 · Key findings. This October, the new Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will conduct a one-year Spending Review, setting detailed departmental allocations for 2025–26. Alongside this, she will update plans for the overall level of departmental spending – the ‘spending envelope’ – for 2026–27 onwards.

5 Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2024 Poverty and deprivation 1. Despite the significant challenges posed first by the pandemic and then the cost-of-living crisis, poverty rates changed very little between 2019–20 and 2022–23.The overall rate of absolute poverty rose slightly to 18% in 2022–23, the