Dear All,
I've had some fascinating responses but I guess I didn't frame the
question very well. In microsimulation, policy makers often take
simulated populations, distributed like real populations and then
"run them through" new systems for social security benefits to find
out how much they will cost, what distribution of income will result
and so on. The people who do this have been restive about the lack of
behavioural content in these models for some time (for example, they
measure how income distribution changes but make no attempt to say
how that will feed through to spending) but I'm no longer upto speed
on how they are getting on with making this stuff "more behavioural".
It could be argued that this form of microsimulation is not very
social and perhaps no microsimulators frequent this list but I
thought I would ask.
All the best,
Edmund
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Edmund Chattoe: Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, Manor Road
Oxford, OX1 3UQ tel: 01865-286174 fax: 01865-286171 Review Editor Journal
of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (JASSS) "So act as to
treat humanity, whether in your own person or in another, always as
an end, and
never as only a means." (Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles) Nuffield
Foundation New Career Development Fellow and Research Fellow, Nuffield
College. More data here http://www.sociology.ox.ac.uk/people/chattoe.html
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