IFS Zooms In: The Economy

Subscribe to The Expert Factor feed: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-expert-factor/id1709487231A general election is looming. Manifestos are being drafted. The battle of ideas is intensifying. From tackling climate change to turning around the economy, rethinking Britain’s place in the world to restoring trust in politics, the UK is facing huge challenges. So how can we make sense of it all?The EXPERT FACTOR is the podcast for people who haven’t had enough of experts. Each week we the directors of three leading and respected think tanks – Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Hannah White of the Institute for Government, and Anand Menon of UK in a Changing Europe – get together to discuss, debate and explain the big questions and themes that will shape the election – and the political landscape for years to come.This week the team look ahead to the party conference season. What are the pressing questions that Keir Starmer needs to answer? How much pressure will Rishi Sunak be under? And what difference do these get-togethers really make?• Institute Fiscal Studies: https://ifs.org.uk/• Institute for Government: https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/• UK in a Changing Europe: https://ukandeu.ac.uk/Written and presented by Paul Johnson, Hannah White and Anand Menon. Audio production by Alex Rees for Podmasters.

From silicon chips to fertiliser, the last few years have shown us that where our materials come from matters massively to the stability of our economy. How we get stuff out of the ground, processed and into complex global supply chains is a vital and oft-overlooked part of our economy - with ramifications for government policy across all sectors.In this episode, we speak with Ed Conway, Economics Editor at Sky News and author of a new book Material World: The Making of Civilisation.Find out more: https://ifs.org.uk/Become a member: https://ifs.org.uk/individual-membership

Debates about inequality often focus on inequalities between people. But what about inequalities between firms?Recent decades have seen the emergence of giant, multinational firms - the FAANGs of this world. But over 40% of registered businesses in the UK have less than 10 employees.What do we mean when we talk about inequality between firms? Are inequalities between firms limiting UK business dynamism? And do governments need to step in and enforce competition rules?Joining us this episode are John Van Reenan, Ronald Coase Chair in Economics and School Professor at the LSE, and Amelia Fletcher, Professor of Competition Policy at Norwich Business School.Find out more: https://ifs.org.uk/inequality/Become a member: https://ifs.org.uk/individual-membership

Over the past decades, women have drawn closer to men in a variety of areas - education, university degrees and workforce participation. But, women still earn less on average than men.In this episode, we ask why this pay gap opens up, whether things have improved in recent years, and talk about one key factor affecting women’s pay - kids.Joining us are Alison Andrew, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford, Christine Farquharson, Senior Research Economist at IFS and Lucinda Platt, Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the LSE.Find out more: https://ifs.org.uk/inequality/Become a member: https://ifs.org.uk/individual-membership

Since 2019, we’ve all heard a lot about levelling up. It makes sense that our politics is centered around it - of all types of inequality, the public seems most concerned about the geographical sort. But do the numbers back this up? How much of Britain’s inequality is generated by differing fortunes in different parts of the country? And what might an effective “levelling up” agenda look like?   In this episode, we speak to Xiaowei Xu, Senior Research Economist at IFS, James Banks, Professor of Economics at Manchester University.Find out more: https://ifs.org.uk/inequality/Become a member: https://ifs.org.uk/individual-membership

We see inequalities all the time, whether at the school gates, the hospital, when travelling round the country and definitely when turning on the news. But why should we care about inequality? What has happened to inequality over recent decades? And can government do anything about it?We speak to Professor Sir Angus Deaton, an economist who is an expert on inequality and leads the IFS-Deaton Review, Debra Satz, a philosopher and Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, and Robert Joyce, Deputy Director at IFS and panel member of the IFS-Deaton Review.Find out more: https://ifs.org.uk/inequality/Become a member: https://ifs.org.uk/individual-membership

Inequalities are one of the defining issues of the modern age. We see inequalities all the time, whether at the school gates, the hospital, when travelling round the country and definitely when turning on the news.Over the next month on the IFS Zooms In, we are bringing you a mini-series looking at inequality in Britain. We’ll be looking at a range of issues, from what’s happened to inequality over the last several decades and why that might matter, to more specific issues such as the role parenthood plays in opening the gender pay gap, and whether the practices of big tech companies worsen inequality.We hope you’ll join us, starting next week, as the IFS Zooms In on inequality.Find out more: https://ifs.org.uk/podcasts

This week, we're bringing you an episode from the archives, looking at the future of public sector pensions. We'll be back in two weeks with a new episode. -----------------------------------In an era where those in the private sector have seen their pension provision decrease, pensions in the public sector continue to look generous.But is this sustainable? Should we change the balance between pay and pensions for those in the public sector? What does the future hold for public sector pensions?This week, we speak to Lord Hutton of Furness, cabinet minister in the last Labour government and leader of the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission, a review into public sector pensions commissioned by David Cameron, and by Carl Emmerson, IFS Deputy Director and expert on pensions.Support the IFS: https://ifs.org.uk/donate

Over the past 13 years, successive governments have pledged to bring immigration down, but have failed to do so. Recently, the government announced that net immigration for 2022 was around 600,000. How many people are migrating and where are they coming from? How has Brexit shifted the dynamics of migration? What is the impact of migration on the wages of native-born workers? And what could government do if it wanted to achieve its target of reducing migration?In this episode, Paul speaks to Madeleine Sumption, a political scientist who is Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford.Find out more: https://ifs.org.uk/podcastBecome a member: https://ifs.org.uk/individual-membership