New Pathways in Microsimulation - Hardcover

'New Pathways in Microsimulation is an extremely useful reference for those involved in the design and the evaluation of tax-benefit systems. Beyond methodological advances, it contains valuable examples from different policy domains, for example from the very timely field of pension reform in light of demographic and budgetary pressures. The authors demonstrate the substantial added value of microsimulations over purely aggregate or representative agent models!'Alain Jousten, University of Liege, Belgium and Maastricht University, Holland

Microsimulation as a modelling tool in social sciences has increased in importance over the last few decades. Once restricted to a handful of universities and government departments, as a scientific field it has achieved a new dynamism during the last decade. As computing power increases and data availability becomes more widespread, microsimulation models can be put to hitherto unprecedented uses. Edited by leading experts in the field, this book illustrates recent advances, methodologies and uses of socioeconomic microsimulation in social sciences around the world. It does so by analysing new grounds covered in microsimulation and exploring new applications in traditional fields. As such, the chapters - grouped into five sections: new methods and methodology; pensions; financial crisis and austerity measures; health; and poverty - present recent, innovative and challenging work in various fields that is not just relevant for those in that field, but that might also inspire scholars from the other disciplines to broaden their minds to new and exciting uses of this established methodology.