About

International Microsimulation Association

The International Microsimulation Association was founded in October 2005 with the aim of advancing the field of microsimulation.

Microsimulation is a technique developed by Guy Orcutt which uses individual level data to model economic and social outcomes. The important detail is that all the modelling is done at the individual level, allowing the person doing the modelling to identify impacts of an external factor, like Government Policy, on individuals, families, households, firms, etc. These impacts can then be aggregated, and the impact on different sub-groups of the population (eg, age, income group, etc) can be identified. In the field, this is called identifying the distributional impacts. The paper outlining Orcutt’s original vision is republished in the International Journal of Microsimulation.

The external factors affecting the individual units can be anything that can be measured and that has an impact on the units. Examples are government policy; economic, social or demographic change; etc.

Microsimulation models cover a number of areas, including:

Models of the Tax and Transfer systems in a country;
Labour supply models;
Dynamic microsimulation models, which incorporate long term demographic change;
Spatial models;
Transport models;
Health models;
Environmental models;
Firm level models;
Farm models

Just to name a few. Examples of each of these models can be found in the Handbook of Microsimulation Modelling.

On this website, you will find resources to:

help you understand microsimulation if you know nothing about it but think it could help in your work;
develop your understanding of microsimulation if you have some knowledge or used it before to some extent; and
link you to other microsimulation experts to develop your knowledge.

We hold an international conference every 2 years; an Australasia conference with the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand’s MODSIM conference; and a European conference. Our list of events, including conferences and seminars, is here

There is also an opportunity to visit different centres of microsimulation internationally, and a number of centres have agreed to host visitors. While this program is currently closed due to COVID-19, we expect this to start again in 2022.

So there are plenty of opportunities to learn about microsimulation, which you will find by exploring this website.

As you might have heard, since May 25th, 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR portal, 2018) has been implemented. The aim of the GDPR is to protect all EU citizens from privacy and data breaches in an increasingly data-driven world (op. cit., GDPR Key changes).

Part of the expanded rights of data subjects outlined by the GDPR is the right for data subjects to obtain from the data controller confirmation as to whether personal data concerning them is being processed, where, and for what purpose. Furthermore, you have a “right to be forgotten,” which “entitles the data subject to have the data controller erase his/her personal data.”

The personal data that the International Microsimulation Association holds of all its members includes the following:

First and last name
Company/university/institute affiliation
Postal address of the company/university/institute affiliation
Email address
Nationality
Year of membership initiation

We use this information to send you emails designed to inform you of conferences, institutional members’ employment vacancies, invitations to General Assemblies, and other news related to IMA. Furthermore, we use this information to grant you access to the General Assemblies of IMA, so that you can exercise your voting rights, as well as to give you the right to stand for office.

This information is not used for any other purposes, and under no circumstances is it distributed outside the board of the Association.

You consented to our using this information by signing up as a member of the International Microsimulation Association. You have the right to suspend your IMA membership. If you choose to suspend your membership, we will permanently erase your information from our files and no longer contact you. To do this, simply send a brief email to the president of the Association, Robert Tanton, or the information officer, Sophie Pennec ([email protected]). You are also welcome to contact us about any aspect of this information.

References: GDPR portal (2018). EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) portal. https://www.eugdpr.org/ [29/4/2018]