Modeling Individuals' Behavior: Evaluation of a Policymaker's Tool

Alan Gustman ()

No 1223, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: With a continuous decline in the cost of manipulating data and a continuous increase in the richness of data banks, policymakers have increasing opportunities to build and apply so-called micro-simulation models--modelsthat attempt to simulate the behavior of the individuals in a large population under a specified program. The efforts of the Department of Labor to use a model in evaluating proposed changes in the unemployment insurance system point up both the power and the weaknesses of such models. Any user who applies these models without attempting to understand which of their strengths and weaknesses are most important for analyzing the problem at hand is asking for trouble. Easy to use or not,these models are not user friendly.

Date: 1983-10
Note: LS
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published as Gustman, Alan L. "Modeling Individuals' Behavior: Evaluation of a Policymaker's Tool." Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 3, No. 2, (Winter 1984), pp. 191-205.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w1223.pdf (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:nbr:nberwo:1223

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w1223

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().