This extension of OpenFisca aims to model the UK Tax-Benefit system.
This is in the early stages (from the country template linked above) and documentation and better modeling is in progress - feel free to contact or open an issue with bugs/errors/inaccuracies/suggestions.
The elements are described in different folders. All the modelling happens within the openfisca_uk folder.
- The rates and other system parameters are in the
parametersfolder. - The formulas and inputs are in the
variablesfolder. - This country package comes also with reforms in the
reformsfolder.
The files that are outside from the openfisca_uk folder are used to set up the development environment. Installation instructions are located along with other documentation in the docs folder.
We're grateful to the UKMOD team for publishing descriptions of their model; our ability to reference these descriptions accelerated OpenFisca UK's development. UKMOD is maintained, developed and managed by the Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), University of Essex.
The model supports multiple different input datasets provided by the user, one of which is the Family Resources Survey1, containing microdata on household incomes across the UK.
-
Run
pip install openfisca-uk -
Run
openfisca-ukand go through the prompt to setup microdata.
The maintainer for OpenFisca-UK is Nikhil Woodruff - feel free to contact via email.
We constructed the model by programming rules and parameters specified primarily in the country report created by UKMOD, a microsimulation model developed by the University of Essex. We also validated against legislation, various gov.uk sites, reports from other microsimulation models, and external benefits calculators. See the validation page for more information.
The model is currently under development. Users should be forewarned that the model components could change significantly. Therefore, there is NO GUARANTEE OF ACCURACY. THE CODE SHOULD NOT CURRENTLY BE USED FOR PUBLICATIONS, JOURNAL ARTICLES, OR RESEARCH PURPOSES. Essentially, you should assume the calculations are unreliable until we finish the code re-architecture and have checked the results against other existing implementations of the tax code. The package will have released versions, which will be checked against existing code prior to release.
You may cite the source of your analysis as "OpenFisca-UK release #.#.#, author's calculations."
Footnotes
-
Department for Work and Pensions, Office for National Statistics, NatCen Social Research. (2021). Family Resources Survey, 2019-2020. [data collection]. UK Data Service. SN: 8802, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-8802-1 ↩