SAMOD, a South African tax-benefit microsimulation model: recent developments

Authors

Gemma Wright, Michael Noble, Helen Barnes, David McLennan, Michell Mpike

Publication Date

Oct 2016

Summary

This paper provides an account of a South African tax-benefit microsimulation model—SAMOD—which has been developed for use by government over the past ten years. The two datasets that underpin the current version of SAMOD are introduced, and the model’s tax and benefit policies are described with discussion of the various data challenges and assumptions that had to be made in order to simulate them, with particular emphasis on the value-added tax policy. Simulations using the two different underpinning datasets are compared with reported administrative data. The paper concludes by highlighting three future developments for SAMOD.

Publication type

Research Paper

Series Number

2016/115

Research area

Tax and benefit systems

Links

https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/samod-south-african-tax-benefit-microsimulation-model

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