EUROMOD Annual Meeting 2021

The EUROMOD Annual Meeting took place on 4-5 October 2021. It emerged that the process of annual update goes according to the plans, with EUROMOD beta releases made publicly available in May and September and the public release expected for January 2022. The network welcomed ifo Institute and SOFI as new National Teams for Germany and Sweden respectively, as well as new members of the EUROMOD teams at the JRC and Eurostat.

Presentations on the uses of EUROMOD stressed the growing importance that EUROMOD is playing for various internal and/or EC-supported initiatives and activities, among them the production of the Flash Estimates and the support to Member States in the context of technical assistance. Academic uses of the model are showing a rebound following a drop in 2020.

The capabilities of EUROMOD simulations are expanding in various directions. In terms of modelling, the new Indirect Tax Tool (ITT) allows to simulate VAT and excises, while the LMA add-on simulates complex labour market transitions. With the aim of fostering the use of EUROMOD, the JRC has made public the EUROMOD-JRC interface, a simplified version of EUROMOD accessible on the web. Similarly, the In-depth Analysis plugin, a fully customisable statistics presenter, was made available for analysing baseline-reform scenarios.

In terms of data, the year 2021 has seen the use of a new internal procedure for generating EUROMOD input datasets, managed by Eurostat in agreement with the National Statistical Institutes. Ten countries benefitted from this new procedure in 2021, and the rest will join in 2022. In parallel, JRC has worked on the extensions of EUROMOD to work with administrative data, in the context of technical support programmes to member states, in partnership with DG REFORM.

The Annual Meeting ended with four presentations by National Teams and JRC. The links to the corresponding slides, along with institutional presentations by JRC and ESTAT, are accessible on the links below.

Programme of the EUROMOD Annual Meeting 2021

Presentations:

Session 1. Overview

• Overview of 2021 activities - Alberto Tumino, European Commission, DG JRC
• Uses of the model by the JRC over 2021 - Ana Agúndez, European Commission, DG JRC
• External uses of the model over 2021 - Fidel Picos, European Commission, DG JRC

Session 2. Recent developments

• Software - Bianey Palma, European Commission, DG JRC
• Model and extended functionalities - Adrián Hernández, European Commission, DG JRC
• Data - Albane Gourdol, European Commission, DG ESTAT
• Flash estimates - Aura Leulescu, European Commission, DG ESTAT

Session 4. Presentations by National Teams

• The use of EUROMOD in Distributional Impact Assessment of Draft Budgetary Plans - Carlo Fiorio, Milan University, Italy
• Using EUROMOD with administrative data in Greece: lessons and prospects - Chrysa Leventi, Council of Economic Advisors, Greek Ministry of Finance, Greece
• Analysing intergenerational fairness - Disaggregating income effects and simulating revenue-neutral reform policies - Tamara Premrov and Leonard Geyer, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Austria
• The Redistributive Impact of Indirect Taxation in Europe - Sofia Maier and Mattia Ricci, European Commission, DG JRC