Topic outline

  • About this course

    About this course


    Tax-benefit microsimulation models are used to answer “what if” questions about the effects of tax and benefit reforms on household incomes and the income distribution. Such analysis is regularly performed for Budget and other Government policy announcements and is also highly relevant for the design of alternative reforms and new policy instruments.

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    There are a number of UK tax-benefit models that are regularly maintained and updated but they are usually private, expensive to develop and require specialised skills to use them effectively.

    The exception is the tax-benefit model UKMOD (a spin-off model based on the UK component of the EU model, EUROMOD).

    This course will help you understand:

    • how to access and download UKMOD models, software and data
    • How to run UKMOD and do basic descriptive analysis
    • Advanced topics in UKMOD modelling

    Some of the basic topics included are:

    • the basics of tax-benefit microsimulation
    • the logic and structure behind UKMOD
    • working with UKMOD: the policy rules, FRS micro-data and the EUROMOD software
    • using the EUROMOD tools (Statistics Presenter) for distributional analysis
    • the EUROMOD tax-benefit modelling language
    • how to access documentation and additional help sources

    You can also find out about more advanced topics such as:

    • Universal Credit implementation in UKMOD
    • the latest release
    • benefit take-up adjustment and transition from the legacy benefits to Universal Credit
    • calculating work incentives with the Marginal Effective Tax Rates (MTR) add-on

    If you have not attended a face to face training before, you are strongly advised to follow through the material in the suggested order as outlined in the "self-paced course". 

    If you have already attended one of our face-to-face training sessions and would like a refresher on various topics, have a look at the materials from the latest training.