MODELLING GOVERNMENT EDUCATION OUTLAYS

Abstract

NATSEM’s static microsimulation model, STINMOD, originally simulated the receipt of all major government cash transfers and the payments of income taxes. During the past 18 months the scope of the STINMOD database has been broadened to include non-cash health, housing, education and child care benefits. This paper explains how NATSEM modelled the incidence of government education outlays in STINMOD. This paper commences with a brief review of education outlays in Australia and then describes the framework adopted for imputing the usage and value of education services consumed by families. Finally, some preliminary results are compared with the available benchmarks.