The Winter School on Cross Country Microsimulation is part of the policy pillar of InGRID, a large research infrastructure network aimed at integrating existing research resources in the area of ‘Poverty and living conditions’ and ‘Working conditions and vulnerability’ by providing transnational data access, organizing mutual knowledge exchange activities and improving methods and tools for comparative research.

The aim of the course is to provide academics, policy practitioners and other inter­ested users with an introduction to the concepts, structure and functioning of EUROMOD. EUROMOD is a state-of-the-art tax-benefit microsimulation model that links microdata from household surveys and policy legislation in a single user interface. It allows for complex policy impact analysis, such as evaluations of policy reforms in terms of poverty, inequality, work incentives and government budgets, assessments of EU-wide policies or estimation the impact of changing population characteristics on the redistributive effect of existing policies. The Winter School will take place on 26-28 February 2014 at University of Essex in Colchester, United Kingdom.

The course will cover the basics of tax-benefit microsimulation, the logic and structure behind EUROMOD, working with EUROMOD’s user interface, input data, EUROMOD ‘language’ and using existing documentation. The bulk of the course is dedicated to teaching EUROMOD functions which form the building blocks of the EUROMOD ‘language’. The course combines lectures with live demonstrations of the model. Participants also have the opportunity to carry out a number of hands-on exercises to test and refine their understanding of the model. The last half day of the course is devoted to illustrating more advanced uses of the model.

At the end of the course, participants are expected to have a good understanding of how EUROMOD works and to be capable of using EUROMOD for their own purposes.

Eligibility

This winter school is aimed at PhD students, early-stage researcher and practitioners without prior knowledge of EUROMOD.

Requirements for attending the winter school are:

• an interest in using microsimulation for policy analysis;
• a basic knowledge of quantitative analysis;
• familiarity with Stata is desirable but not essential.

Costs

Attendance at the Winter School is free of charge. University of Essex will reimburse travel, accommodation and subsistence costs up to a maximum of €650. These travel costs include airfares as well as any other local/ground transport costs from and to the airport. Refreshments and lunches will be provided during the meeting.

Application

Candidates to the winter school are expected to fill in the application form  before 1 November 2013, including a motivation for attending the winter school. Candidates should also indi­cate whether they plan to give a brief  presentation about a project in which they (plan to) use EUROMOD. Applications will be evaluated by UoE and candidates will be informed whether their appli­cations have been accepted by 15 November 2013.

For more information please read the official call.

Read more: http://www.mladiinfo.com