Modelling Household Spending Using a Random Assignment Scheme

Tony Lawson ()
Additional contact information
Tony Lawson: Department of Sociology, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ

International Journal of Microsimulation, 2013, vol. 6, issue 2, 56-75

Abstract: Applied demand analysis is usually done by specifying some kind of econometric equation but there are some difficulties associated with this approach. These include the problem of modelling at a highly disaggregated level and the amount of data needed to estimate the parameters for the equations. This paper examines the use of what are known as random assignment schemes as a way to model household expenditure. This approach is based on the idea of predicting the behavioural response of a microsimulation unit by finding a donor, which is in some sense similar to the receiving unit. The paper begins with a brief review of econometric modelling. It then introduces the principles of random assignment schemes. These are expanded upon in an illustrative example to model the effect of changes in the level of income on household expenditure patterns. The model is then used as a platform to show how the random assignment scheme can be used to model a large number of goods, at the level of individual households.

Keywords: random assignment; microsimulation; income; expenditure; NetLogo (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.microsimulation.org/ijm/v6_2/_IJM_i6_2_Lawson (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ijm:journl:v:6:y:2013:i:2:p:56-75

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Microsimulation is currently edited by Matteo Richiardi

More articles in International Journal of Microsimulation from International Microsimulation Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jinjing Li ().