Improving Information for Social Policy Decisions -- The Uses of Microsimulation Modeling: Volume II, Technical Papers (1991)
Chapter: SPSD/M Parameters
Database Adjustment
The 1984 SPSD is based on surveys and administrative data collected for the 1984 calendar year. Adjustment of these data may be required to carry out either demographic or economic aging. For example, a user may want the incomes to represent those in a more recent year, such as 1989. In this case the user can supply estimates of growth rates for income by source between 1984 and 1989. The user may also wish to make adjustments for simulation purposes for 1984. For example, known underreporting of alcohol expenditures may be treated by scaling each household’s alcohol expenses.
Prior to the execution of the first operating characteristic, each dollar-denominated database variable is multiplied by a single corresponding database adjustment parameter. Employment income is adjusted by sex and province-specific growth rates, and Canada and Quebec pension plan income is adjusted by age groups to correctly account for its phasing-in period.
The 1984 SPSD/M package includes weight files for selected years between 1984 and 1991. These files were produced during the database creation process and represent the required demographic weights so that the 1984 database matches Statistics Canada’s population estimates and projections. These weights are selected by specifying the target year of analysis and cannot otherwise be altered by the SPSD/M user. (The current version of SPSD/M provides a generalized raking procedure that permits the user to generate weight files for any year.)
Operating Characteristics
The operating characteristics supported by the 1984 SPSD/M include the following: unemployment insurance, family allowance, old age security, guaranteed income supplement, provincial elderly supplementation programs, federal sales tax credit, federal child tax credit, personal federal taxes, personal provincial taxes and credits, and household commodity taxes. Many of these programs have undergone extensive changes in the past several years as the Canadian government has implemented and/or proposed elimination of most personal tax deductions and conversion of the same into nonrefundable tax credits, introduction of the federal sales tax credit and child tax credit programs, taxation of benefits from the universal old age security and family allowance programs, and introduction of a new goods and services sales tax at the federal level in 1991 to replace a previously hidden tax applied to manufactured items.
SPSD/M Parameters
SPSD/M uses three different types of parameters to determine the actions of a model run:
