SimPaths: An open-source microsimulation model for life course analysis

SimPaths is a family of models for individual and household life course events. The framework is designed to project life histories through time, building up a detailed picture of career paths, family (inter)relations, health, and financial circumstances. The modular nature of the SimPaths framework is designed to facilitate analysis of alternative assumptions concerning the tax and benefit system, sensitivity to parameter estimates and alter-native approaches for projecting labour/leisure and consumption/savings decisions. SimPaths builds upon standardised assumptions and data sources, which facilitates adaptation to alternative countries – models based on the framework currently exist for the UK, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and Poland, and are under development for Germany, Spain and Sweden. Further details and projections for a workhorse model parametrised to the UK context are reported in and model code is available from GitHub.

Patryk Bronka is a Senior Research Officer at the Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis, University of Essex, UK and a Policy Fellow with the Department for Work and Pensions’ Working Age Modelling and Forecasting Team. He is a labour economist focused on developing and applying microsimulation modelling techniques to questions around the functioning of the tax and benefit system and labour markets, distributional analysis, policy evaluation, and health. His research interests also include exploring methodological advancements in microsimulation modelling, currently focused on algorithmic approaches to validating microsimulation outcomes, and improving health modelling within dynamic frameworks.