Author Archives: Mark Pack

Yesterday I made the point that the way in which the IFS presents its estimates as to how progressive or not government measures are risks giving an over-precise impression bearing in mind the data and methodological issues the IFS has acknowledged. That is an issue which comes up again in the answers from the IFS in this post, where the IFS’s position can be summarised as ‘yes, our calculations are not perfect but they are the best that can be reasonably done’. That does mean there is plenty of scope for people to place undue weight on their …

Yesterday I blogged the first of a set of answers from the IFS about its calculations and the data behind them. Those answers nicely lead on to the next question:

In looking at the impact of the Budget or the Spending Review, the IFS typically quotes the impact on different groups of people to one decimal place. What’s your reason for thinking that your calculations are based on sufficiently accurate data and assumptions to justify reporting them to the nearest tenth of one percent (rather than, for example, the nearest percent)?

Our policy is to publish the exact figures produced by …

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has been much quoted and criticised by all sides over the last few months as the government has set out its willingness to be judged on how progressive or not its policies are and the IFS has become the default think tank of choice to turn to for information and supporting arguments by politicians, bloggers and pundits.

No-one is infallible, so it’s perfectly reasonable for people to sometimes agree with the IFS and sometimes disagree. However, some people from all parts of the political spectrum have not always covered themselves in glory by switching from …