This paper studies the impact of changes in the external balance of a developing economy (Pakistan). We explain that the economic growth achieved during the past decade is highly dependent on the improvements in external balance. Between 2001 and 2007 Pakistan has benefited from, an increase in...

Pension systems have recently been under scrutiny because of the expected population ageing threatening its sustainability. This paper’s contribution to the debate is from a political economic perspective as it uses data from a choice experiment to investigate individual preferences for an...

This paper examines the use of national microsimulation models in a cross-country context and highlights some of the difficulties associated with carrying out comparative research. Changes to the equivalence scales of social assistance systems in favour of children in Germany, Ireland and the UK...

This special issue of the Brazilian Electronic Journal of Economics deals with the field of dynamic microsimulation modelling. Microsimulation modelling is a technique that simulates either economic behaviour or public policy on groups of micro-agents. Examples include the simulation of national...

This paper examines the impact of a carbon tax on the income distribution in Ireland using the 1987 Household Budget Survey. Previous studies have focused on the direct impact of the carbon tax on expenditures on domestic fuels. This study however, drawing on previous work expands the analysis...

In this paper we outline the development of a spatial microsimulation model that uses a combinational optimisation technique called simulated annealing to match the Irish Census of Agriculture data to a National Farm Survey (NFS). The matched NFS and Census information is then used to produce...

This paper attempts to use microsimulation methods to compare returns to education in four European countries, Germany, Ireland, Italy and the United Kingdom. This paper broadens the type of measure used to measure the return to education to include interactions with public taxtransfer systems...

Retirement behaviours and elderly poverty issues have been the subject of much attention and discussion in recent years as most countries are facing a rapidly ageing society. Ireland enjoys a relatively young population compared with other European countries, but is also struggling with...

This paper estimates a structured life cycle model of family retirement decision using a unique historical dataset back simulated from Living in Ireland survey. Our model takes the advantages of the dataset and models retirement decisions in terms of monetary and leisure incentives, which...

The main aim of this paper is to provide a spatial modelling framework for labour force participation and income estimation. The development of a household income distribution for Ireland had previously been hampered by the lack of disaggregated data on individual earnings. Spatial...