SimPaths
Life Course Microsimulation
SimPaths is an open-source framework for modelling individual and household life course events. The framework is designed to project life histories through time, building up a detailed picture of career paths, family (inter)relations, health, and financial circumstances. The modular nature of SimPaths facilitates analysis of alternative assumptions concerning the tax and benefit system, sensitivity to parameter estimates, and alternative approaches for projecting labour and leisure as well as consumption and savings decisions. SimPaths builds upon standardised assumptions and data sources, which facilitates adaptation to alternative countries. Models based on the framework currently exist for the UK, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and Poland, and are under development for Germany, Spain, and Sweden.
All source code is freely available for download under a European Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) EUPL-1.2 license, alongside evolving, increasingly detailed documentation.
The framework incorporates many state-of-the-art features which are rarely combined in dynamic models:
Life-course feedback
Education, work, income and wealth, family life, and health evolve together rather than as isolated outputs.
Policy realism
An underlying tax-benefit model links individual outcomes to population-level policy effects.
Behavioural responses
Time-use and savings choices respond to characteristics, fiscal incentives, and future expectations.
Modular design
Java and JAS-mine provide a modular architecture for switching assumptions and projection methods.
Country adaptation
Model dynamics are decoupled from tax-benefit systems, making the framework easier to adapt across country settings.
Explore SimPaths
Recent Research Highlights
View all publicationsTax reforms vs benefit enhancement to address mental health inequalities: a microsimulation study
Compares alternative fiscal policy responses and their implications for mental health inequalities.
→Attenuation and reinforcement mechanisms over the life course
Examines how early advantage and disadvantage can compound or soften across the life course.
→Short-term impacts of Universal Basic Income on population mental health inequalities in the UK
Uses microsimulation to estimate how Universal Basic Income could affect mental health across the UK population.
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