Research project AG/JJ/138 (Research action AG)
A tax-benefit calculation model (MIMOSIS) has been developed under two AGORA projects (AG/01/086 “Microsimulation Model Social Security” and AG/01/116 “Valorisation of the microsimulation of Social Protection”) that enables simulation of both budgetary and distributional impact of social insurance and/ or personal income tax reforms based on administrative data. The core of the model consists of a detailed encoding of the social insurance and personal income tax legislations and application thereof on a representative sample of the Belgian population. The MIMOSIS model is integrated in the daily operations of the FPS Social Security, aiding policy makers when contemplating and formulating policy reforms.
To further optimize the use of the MIMOSIS model it is of importance to analyse to what extent the model could be used for international comparative simulations. The ‘European Tax/Benefit Model’ (EUROMOD) could prove a valuable benchmark model in this context.
The EUROMOD model allows simulating European wide measures on the European population (EU-15, but soon to incorporate new member states through I-CUE project), as well as comparative analyses for the EU member states. The current project aims to analyse to what extent the EUROMOD design (and more specifically the Belgian part of it) differs from MIMOSIS, as far as underlying data as well as modelling are concerned.
In order to compare simulation results of the EUROMOD model with those of the MIMOSIS model it is imperative to analyse similarities and especially differences in the routines as well as the data that make up the two models. An important difference between the two models is that the EUROMOD model is based on survey data, whereas the MIMOSIS model is based on data from administrative sources. The Belgian module of EUROMOD is based on data from the Belgian part of the ‘European Community Household Panel’ (ECHP) and its successor the ‘European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions’ (EU-SILC). It is therefore to be recommended to compare the (income) data from the Belgian part of the EU-SILC with the administrative (income) data of the MIMOSIS model. Of course, possible differences need to be analysed and clarified.
Furthermore, compatibility issues between the EUROMOD routines and the MIMOSIS routines need to be addressed. EUROMOD routines could in principle be used to simulate aspects of foreign social insurance and tax systems on the Belgian population using MIMOSIS. As such, it would, for example, be possible to simulate the (distributional) effects on the Belgian income distribution were certain aspects of the Danish unemployment system to be applied in Belgium. Such functionality would entail a genuine enrichment of the current MIMOSIS model.
Microsimulation model for social security MIMOSIS and EUROMOD : final report
Brussels : Federal Science Policy, 2009 (SP2112)
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