There are many more issues, not least what will happen in the Eurozone and how that will affect the UK economy and the UK referendum
of policy actions and test whether they sit well with expressed aims. Of course to be independent we need
independent sources of funding. That is a continuous struggle for us as a small charity with no assets. The ESRC has been absolutely vital to us in that context over a long period, but it remains very difficult to secure funding for genuinely independent policy-related research. What are the economy issues you feel are likely to be the most prominent ones into the autumn and next year? The big issue for the government, and for us, in the Autumn is likely to be the spending review. The Chancellor will have to set out how he will reduce spending over the next few years. Our analysis is that if he is to keep to manifesto commitments that will require some really big additional cuts in all those areas not expressly protected: transport, business, local government, police etc. These decisions will have long-lasting economic and social effects. The big economic issues look likely to centre around what happens to productivity and to earnings and what, if anything, the government can do to support them after a really dreadful period for both since the recession. If productivity starts to grow again in a sustainable way then we can
expect living standards to start rising and economic growth. If it doesn’t then the rather miserable period of stagnant living standards seen recently will continue and the period of austerity likely to be extended once more. There are many more issues, not least what
will happen in the Eurozone and how that will affect the UK economy and the UK referendum of course. But I’d like to pick one final one which I think is vital both economically and socially – what happens in the housing market. High prices and lack of supply will have big effects on both our capacity to grow and on social and intergenerational equity. n
i
The Institute for Fiscal Studies was founded in 1969. Established as an independent research institute, the IFS was launched with the principal aim of better informing public debate on economics in order to promote the development of effective fiscal policy.
Today, the IFS is Britain’s leading independent microeconomic research institute. Its research remit is one of the broadest in public policy analysis, covering subjects from tax and benefits to education policy, from labour supply to corporate taxation.
The IFS is host to the ESRC Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy and the ESRC Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice.
Web
www.ifs.org.uk www.cemmap.ac.uk/centres/cpp
SOCIETY NOW SUMMER 2015 19
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