I am Principal Economist at the Resolution Foundation, a leading UK think tank working to improve the living standards of people on low and middle incomes.

This is my personal blog for additional thoughts on public policy and economics, as well as copies of older articles and think tank work that have been published elsewhere.

You can follow me on Twitter @adamcorlett

What work am I most proud of?

I like to pretend think I have had some minor professional/political impacts on the world:

• In 2011, I helped change Lib Dem drugs policy, which I think got the ball rolling in breaking a British political taboo (though, as of 2021, policy change in Westminster has been very limited)
• I played a very minor, unquantifiable role in the 2015 tax credits U-turn, which avoided a large income fall for millions
• In 2016 I wrote a paper that was an important contribution to the understanding of global income trends (correcting widespread misunderstanding of the ‘elephant curve’)
• A 2017 paper prompted the ONS to improve its household income statistics, revising down historical inequality and perhaps speeding up improvements to top income data
• In The (Resolution Foundation’s) Living Standards Audit 2018 I showed for the first time how wrong British poverty statistics may have been
• In 2018 I delivered a report on Replacing business rates that I think took the state of analysis and policy significantly forward, and was adopted as Lib Dem policy
• Budget 2020 reformed Entrepreneurs’ Relief, raising £1.8bn a year, which I’m fairly confident I helped influence
• I played a minor, unquantifiable role in the 2021 Universal Credit increase (following on from the temporary £20 a week boost), which adds £3bn a year to poorer households’ incomes