Study title

These datasets contain aggregated expenditure and demographic variables, that are derived from the Family Expenditure Survey (GN 33057), the Expenditure and Food Survey/Living Costs and Food Survey (GN 33334), the General Household Survey (GN 33090) and the Health Survey for England (GN 33261). These files can be used to replicate the results in the paper Banks, J., Blundell, R., Levell, P. and Smith, J. "Life-Cycle Consumption Patterns at Older Ages in the US and the UK: Can Medical Expenditures Explain the Difference?", AEJ: Economic Policy (August, 2019) (see related resources). This proposal sets out a major new programme of research that will lead to significant scientific progress and policy impact. Building on the expertise developed at the Centre and at IFS, we will use the developments in econometric techniques and data availability, including linked survey and administrative data, to push our research agenda in exciting new directions. The focus of the work will be on: a) Consumers and markets. We will use insights from behavioural economics and robust methods to understand within-household behaviour and we will explore the relationships between government policy, firm behaviour and outcomes for consumers. This work has the potential to transform our understanding of the effects of policy interventions that either change the relative prices of the goods consumers buy (e.g. taxes on alcohol, green levies, sugar taxes) or try to change consumers' preferences (e.g. through information campaigns or restrictions on advertising). b) Inequality, risk and insurance. Understanding the determinants of inequality is central to our agenda. We will focus on understanding inequality across the life cycle and across and within generations. We will explore the role of housing, of insurance and of market and non-market mechanisms in managing risk and uncertainty. The availability of new administrative data linked to existing surveys will allow us to examine the dynamics...