Theory suggests that government should as far as possible smooth taxes and its recurrent consumption spending, which means that government debt should act as a shock absorber, and any planned adjustments in debt should be gradual. This suggests that operational targets for governments (e.g. for...

Theory suggests that government should as far as possible smooth taxes and its recurrent consumption spending, which means that government debt should act as a shock absorber, and any planned adjustments in debt should be gradual. This suggests that operational targets for governments (e.g. for...

The concept of ‘intergenerational fairness’ was introduced to the UK policy debate by David Willetts MP (now, somewhat ironically, the Minister for Universities and Science, and hence responsible for the new system of student finance) in his book, The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers stole their...

Immigration has been central in recent UK policy debates and has attracted significant concern over its possible adverse effect on labour market outcomes. This paper contributes to the evidence on this issue by presenting initial results on the impact of migration inflows on the claimant count...

In the National Institute Economic Review, No 226, NIESR Director Jonathan Portes outlines the key economic issues relating to a possible UK exit from the EU, and discusses how researchers might approach the difficult but important task of assessing the potential impacts on the UK economy. �

Introduction to the special issue on policy evaluation. Considers what role policy evaluation should play in government policy formation in a period of austerity.