I have a Ph.D. in economics from MIT and decades of experience designing, developing, testing and using microsimulation models that estimate the effects of changes in public policy.
From 2015 to 2019, I was the lead developer of Tax-Calculator, an open-source static US federal income and payroll tax microsimulation model written in Python. In 2018, the World Bank asked me to begin working with the Tax Policy Research Unit of the Ministry of Finance in New Delhi to adapt Tax-Calculator to simulate the Indian individual income tax.
My experience working with World Bank staff in Washington and Ministry of Finance staff in New Delhi has led to the development of an open-source tax microsimulation framework that supports rapid development with minimal coding of new tax models that can be used at the command line without any computer programming. There is also a graphical user interface to framework models. This framework has been used to develop a US federal income and payroll tax model and a Massachusetts state income tax model. Also, the framework has been used to develop personal and corporate income tax models for several countries including India, Malaysia, Albania, Moldova, and Ethiopia.
Over several decades before 2016, I designed and developed, for use by federal government agencies and non-profit organizations, a suite of dynamic microsimulation models — known as the PSG Models — that simulate payroll taxes and social security benefits as well as lifetime accumulations of employer-sponsored pension benefits. The models are written in C++ and have a graphical user interface that facilitates their use.
I can provide design advice, development assistance, validation testing or ease-of-use evaluation related to your microsimulation model. The consulting engagement can have a narrow or broad focus, and be short-term or long-term, depending on your needs. To discuss options, contact me via email at martin DOT holmer AT gmail DOT com.