This book offers the first systematic assessment of income redistribution in Eastern Europe, within a comparative European perspective, and it demonstrates the future research potential of microsimulation techniques in...

Spatial microsimulation models are increasingly being used to create realistic microdata for geographical areas, to enable statistical modelling of health, social and economic variables in a wide variety of application areas. The models combine sample records with benchmark data for pre-defined geographic areas, typically by sampling, or re-weighting sample records to fit a set of constraints f...

This paper develops a method that improves researchers’ ability to account for behavioral responses to policy change in microsimulation models. Current microsimulation models are relatively simple, in part because of the technical difficulty of accounting for unobserved heterogeneity. This is all the more problematic because data constraints typically force researchers to limit their forecastin...

Microsimulation is a rapidly expanding area of spatial modelling, which seems to offer great potential for applied policy analysis. However, currently there is considerable debate on the most appropriate methodology for estimating micro-data. Household or individual attribute data can be represented both as lists and/or as tabulations. It has long been argued (Birkin and Clarke, 1995; Clarke, 1...

In developing decision-making models for the evaluation of medical procedures, the model parameters can be estimated by fitting the model to data observed in trial studies. For complex models that are implemented by discrete event simulation (microsimulation) of individual life histories, the Score Function (SF) method can potentially be an appropriate approach for such estimation exercises. We...

The present study concentrates on the income distribution effects of A Finnish Work Incentive Trap Reform started in 1996. I estimate how the reforms made have affected income levels and income inequality the distribution of economic wellbeing. I look at the effects both without and with behavioral response. The data used is the Income Distribution Statistics of Statistics Finland from the year...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to explore the influence of the characteristics of Japanese patients on the long-term outcomes after aortic valve replacement with either mechanical or biological prostheses by means of a microsimulation. METHODS A microsimulation model was used to simulate the lives of patients living in Japan and in the United States after aortic valve replacement. The b...

OBJECTIVE Markov models are increasingly used in economic evaluations of treatments for osteoporosis. Most of the existing evaluations are cohort-based Markov models missing comprehensive memory management and versatility. In this article, we describe and validate an original Markov microsimulation model to accurately assess the cost-effectiveness of prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. ...