Paul Johnson

The need to address inequality has never been more urgent. There is a widespread sense across the developed world that progress towards a better society has stalled. How did we get here – and where do we go now? 

Paul Johnson, the former director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, explores these pressing questions in Challenging Inequalities. In this new study, he draws on the findings of the six-year IFS Deaton Review, a comprehensive look at inequalities – not simply of income, but also of health, political participation and opportunity. 

He argues that economic stagnation since the financial crises of 2008–2009 has exposed inequalities originating in the 1980s. The combination of earnings inequality and economic stagnation has led to the growing importance of wealth, the increasing concentration of economic power in an older generation and a decline in social mobility – that is the roadmap which led us to our current perilous situation. So what comes next, and how can we change course to achieve better outcomes for all? 

Paul Johnson is provost of the Queen’s College, University of Oxford, and former director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) from 2011-2025. He is a frequent commentator on economic affairs and the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Follow the Money.