Adapting the South African National Income Dynamics Study for use as a Base Micro-data set for SAMOD

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Adapting the South African National Income Dynamics Study for use as a Base Micro-data set for SAMOD

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Title: Adapting the South African National Income Dynamics Study for use as a Base Micro-data set for SAMOD
Author: Wright, Gemma; Noble, Michael; Dinbabo, Mulugeta
Abstract: In this paper we present the main data issues that were confronted when the first wave of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) 2008 was adapted for use as the micro-data underlying a recently developed static tax-benefit micro-simulation model for South Africa (SAMOD). NIDS is the first national household panel survey in South Africa. SAMOD V1.1, which is based on the EUROMOD platform, was initially underpinned by a dataset derived primarily from the South African Income and Expenditure Survey 2000 but additionally drew on data from several other national surveys. As the NIDS questionnaire is more comprehensive in scope than the IES by, for example, containing questions about intra-household relationships - it is better suited for determining eligibility for some of the existing social assistance arrangements such as the child support grant. Based on the NIDS micro-dataset, SAMOD simulated plausible figures for eligibility for social assistance and income tax liability. However, indirect forms of taxation were not captured as well as in the IES-based version of SAMOD. As the NIDS questionnaire includes questions about receipt of grants, it was possible to identify the extent to which individuals estimated to be eligible for the grants using SAMOD overlapped with respondents’ declared receipt, and how both sets of figures compared to the reported figures of the South African Social Security Agency. Similarly, simulated and reported tax figures were compared against figures from the National Treasury and South African Revenue Service. In a small case study it is demonstrated how SAMOD can be used to quantify the impact on poverty and child poverty of a hypothetical new social grant for low-income adults of working age.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/804
Date: 2012-11-16


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