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Cheatography

Personal Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

This is a cheat sheet for personal use

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

Policy Functions

Elig
Function to determine eligib­ility for receiving benefits
ArithOp
Simple calculator for common arithmetic operations
BenCalc
Used for modelling policy instru­ments with various components
DefConst
Define constants
SchedCalc
Allows for the implem­ent­ation of the most common (tax) schedules

ArithOp and Intera­ction

ArithOp allows for simple calcul­ations. It requires three compulsory parame­ters: formula contains the calcul­ations to perform; output_var indicates the variable where results are stored; and TAX_UNIT indicates the assessment unit for the calcul­ations performed.

Elig

Elig determines the eligib­ility for of a unit according to a specific condition. It requires two parame­ters: elig_cond that determines the condition, and TAX_UNIT that determines the assessment unit.

Elig + ArithOp

Elig and ArithOp can be combined via the parameter Who_Mu­st_­Be_Elig. Depending on the selection, this parameter ensures that calcul­ations of the ArithOp are carried out if, one, one_adult, all, all_adults or nobody in the assessment unit fill the conditions defined defined in Elig.

BenCalc

BenCalc is a powerful function typically used to implement means-­tested benefits that consist of several compon­ents. It combines the functi­ona­lities of Elig and ArithOp and has 4 compulsory parame­ters: Comp_cond defines a condtion; Comp_perXX calculates a formula an applies it the assessment unit; Grp/No groups together condition and formula; outputvar and TAX_UNIT.

SchedCalc

SchedCalc is used in progre­ssive taxes to define a tax schedule. It has various parameters that can be used, such as: tax bands (Band_UpLim / Band_L­owLim), tax rates (Band_Rate) and tax base (Base). These parameters are grouped together via Grp/No. To split the base and apply the schedule separately the parameter Quotient can be used.
 

System functions

Uprate
Uprating of monetary dataset variables
SetDefault
Definition of income lists
DefTU
Definition of assessment units
DefOutput
Definition of model output
DefVar & DefConst
Definition of interm­ediate variables and constants

DefConst

DefConst allows to define tax-be­nefit policy parameters as constants (e.g. monthly amounts, income thresh­olds, maximum amounts, etc.). For notation purposes, constants are notated with a $ prefix.
 

Special Functions

Loop & UnitLoop
Repeat part (or all) tax-be­nefit calcul­ations
Store & Restore
Store and restore variables to their previous values
Change­Param
Change value parameters
Totals
Calculate aggregates of variables or income­lists over the whole population or a subset
DropUnit & KeepUnit
Drop (or keep) indivi­duals, families or households with special charac­ter­istics
ILVarOp
Operations on the variables of an incomelist
RandSeed
Generate a series of pseudo­random numbers
CallPr­ogramme
Call external applic­ation
DefInput
Read values for one or more variables from a text file