Britain has suffered a catastrophic decline in welfare performance, falling to 22nd place in life expectancy and ranking just 15th overall despite a record tax burden and ballooning welfare spending ...

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will likely fill the gap with broad-based income tax increases and a ‘dog’s breakfast’ of smaller measures Root cause is spiralling public spending – not productivity ...

Before I started working full-time at the IEA, I wrote a dissertation on poverty in developed economies. At the time, the state of the social policy literature was easily summarised. Developed ...

Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces £30 billion ‘fiscal black hole’ by 2029-30, requiring tax rises or spending cuts to meet fiscal rules Taxing the rich cannot bridge the gap – each 1p rise in the top ...

Each year, the Government publishes international energy price comparisons. The data is sourced from the IEA and covers industrial and domestic gas and electricity prices. The latest data for 2023 was ...

This discussion paper provides the first estimate of the net effect of smoking on UK taxpayers per annum. Up until now, estimates have used a methodology that typically includes intangible costs, ...

‘Market failure’ is a term widely used by politicians, journalists and university and A-level economics students and teachers. However, those who use the term often lack any sense of proportion about ...

The UK’s trade patterns with the EU fail to show a Brexit effect, either since the referendum or the end of the transition period. Trade continued to grow between 2016 and the conclusion of the Brexit ...

Introductory Remarks In recent decades, economics and related policy sciences have taken what might be called a ‘behavioural turn’. Once-dominant theories of rationality and human behaviour have been ...

Research from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) confirms younger people are hostile to capitalism and hold positive views of socialist alternatives. The new paper should act as a “wake up call” ...

Kevin served the IEA with distinction for twenty-three years on the Board of Managing Trustees. He was a dedicated and committed trustee whose scrutiny of our affairs was both fearless and ...

Measuring taxation and government spending as a proportion of national income is beset with difficulties. However, it is clear that there has been a strong upward trend in taxation and government ...