Research at the Centre covers all areas related to early years policy.

Incomes of the elderly and income inequality in the older population
This research looks at the level and sources of incomes of older individuals and households and how inequalities in this population are related to other factors and inequalities in other dimensions, such as health.

New data for studying ageing
We are actively involved in designing a number of new datasets to measure economic position, health, cognitive and social factors in the elderly population.

Financial asset holding and retirement saving
Current research is looking at changes in wealth in the over 50 population and continuing to look at consumption around retirement in order to understand the adequacy of retirement saving.

Pension provision and pension reform
Research in this area has focused on policy design issues arising from recent announcements, and in particular, ISAs and Stakeholder Pensions, Pension Credit, MIG and State Second Pension. Current research continues to look at general and specific issues in pension policy, particularly in the light of the recent Green Paper.

The nature and timing of retirement decisions
Some research has already looked at the timing of retirement decisions, both of singles and couples, and the importance of pension incentives on retirement choices. As panel data on the older population begins to come online over the next few years this will form an increasingly large component of our research agenda.

Health, disability, disability benefits and labour market activity
The issue of health, disability benefits and early retirement is one of huge policy significance.

International comparative research
cera researchers form the UK representatives in the two main international scientific networks on the Economics of Ageing.

Contact: mailbox@ifs.org.uk