# Two Microsimulation Models in Julia

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/two-microsimulation-models-in-julia/139140>\
**Category:** Finance and Economics\
**Created:** [September 1, 2026, 3:07pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/two-microsimulation-models-in-julia/139140 "2026-09-01T15:07:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![grahamstark](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/grahamstark/32/5200_2.png) [@grahamstark](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/grahamstark)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 3:07pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/two-microsimulation-models-in-julia/139140/1 "2026-09-01T15:07:59Z")

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If you’re interested in public policy or economics, you might be interested in some Julia microsimulations I’ve been working on:

- [https://sims.virtual-worlds.scot:8444/scotben-2026/](https://sims.virtual-worlds.scot:8444/scotben-2026/)
- [https://sims.virtual-worlds.scot:8444/bi-2026/](https://sims.virtual-worlds.scot:8444/bi-2026/)

These let you design budgets, setting tax rates and cash benefit levels. A [tax-benefit model](https://github.com/grahamstark/ScottishTaxBenefitModel.jl) calculates the effects your changes on a representative sample of households. This shows you (e.g.) the net costs of your changes, who gains and loses, and changes to poverty, inequality and incentives to work.

The first version is quite general, while the other is customised for a Basic Income (a hypothetical flat-rate cash payment).

I did a [Juliacon talk](https://pretalx.com/juliacon-2022/talk/KPRZAM/) on an early version of this; the new ones are comprehensive upgrades to both the underlying models and the front-ends.

Julia has proved to be a great choice for microsimulation work. It really does solve the 2-language problem. And many of the packages I’ve been working with ([Oxygen](https://github.com/OxygenFramework/Oxygen.jl), [Makie](https://github.com/OxygenFramework/Oxygen.jl), [DataFrames](https://dataframes.juliadata.org/stable/), [PrettyTables](https://ronisbr.github.io/PrettyTables.jl/stable/)]) and many others) are just terrific. My thanks go to all of you in the Julia community.