Timeframe
2014–2018
Funding
Royal Society of New Zealand
Te Pūnaha Matatini
Faculty of Arts
COMPASS staff
Peter Davis
Roy Lay-Yee
Martin von Randow
Kevin Chang
Description
The principal objective of this work was to use existing data to create a dynamic representation of New Zealand society in which virtual experiments could be conducted, focused on areas of interest for policy. This built on all of our previous microsimulation work of different parts of the life-course, as we attempted to describe entire lives.
This project also extended the microsimulation methodology to the unique StatsNZ Longitudinal Census, which followed individuals through the censuses from 1981 to 2006. This enabled us to tailor the simulation and ensure that we could predict the situation at each subsequent census when 5 years were run.
With our enquiry system operational and spanning the life-course, we were able to incorporate and interrogated significant issues of policy, scientific, and public interest. The project and models were described in Simulating Societal Change: Counterfactual Modelling for Social and Public Inquiry.