Introduction to the Special Issue on Dynamic Microsimulation Modelling

This special issue of the Brazilian Electronic Journal of Economics deals with the field of dynamic microsimulation modelling. Microsimulation modelling is a technique that simulates either economic behaviour or public policy on groups of micro-agents. Examples include the simulation of national tax-benefit rules on a representative sample of the population so that public policy can be assessed and potential reforms evaluated. The type of models considered in this issue is dynamic in the sense that models incorporate behaviour over time. These models are primarily used to analyse public policy that involves a time dimension. Examples of analyses carried out by these models include projections of the population forward in time so that the sustainability and performance of public policies like pensions, long-term care and education financing can be evaluated. Dynamic microsimulation models can also be used to study inter-temporal processes and behavioural issues such as life-course redistribution, wealth accumulation, demographic behaviour, the impact of tax-benefit system on labour market mobility and modelling transitions into and out of poverty and social exclusion.