This paper reviews the issues to be faced in attempting to create a microsimulation of health care demand, health care finance and the economic impact of health behaviour. These issues identified via an in-depth review of seven dynamic microsimulation models, selected from an initial set of 27 models in order to highlight the main differences in approaches and modelling options currently adopte...

High entry barriers might discourage many social scientists from using existing microsimulation software. This article presents the functionality and capabilities of the free and open source R package MicSim which allows performing continuous-time microsimulation at a very fine-grained level from a low level entry point. Hence, the package might also be of interest to people who are new to R. T...

This paper presents a novel method of creating and updating geographical population microdata. In particular, it presents a prototype modelling technique which forms a component of the SimBritain modelling project. The paper first briefly discusses some of the key conceptual and practical issues involved in microsimulation, in particular highlighting the differences between spatial and aspatial...

Model validation is recognised as crucial to microsimulation modelling. However, modellers encounter difficulty in choosing the most meaningful methods to compare simulated and actual values. The aim of this paper is to introduce and demonstrate a method employed widely in healthcare calibration studies. The ‘Bland-Altman plot’ consists of a plot of the difference between two methods against th...

The aim is to model the spatial distribution of the population dynamics in Southern France. First the philosophical differences between a micro-level approach and a meso-level approach are presented and their respective advantages are briefly compared from a general point of view. Then the model is presented. It is a microsimulation model but it has some rules defined at the aggregate level of ...

This text describes the first application of a novel path flow and origin/destination (OD) matrix estimator for iterated dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) microsimulations. The presented approach, which operates on a trip-based demand representation, is derived from an agent-based DTA calibration methodology that relies on an activity-based demand model. The objective of this work is to demonstr...

For shortto medium-length bridges, the governing traffic loading scenario may be congested traffic. This paper presents the calibration of a congested traffic load model using traffic microsimulation. A range of bridge lengths, forms of construction, and load effects is considered. Different driving parameters and traffic composition are also considered. The influence of these parameters on the...

The paper presents a spatial microsimulation approach to the analysis of health inequalities. A dynamic spatial microsimulation model of Britain, under development at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield, uses data from the censuses of 1971, 1981 and 1991 and the British Household Panel Survey to simulate urban and regional populations in Britain. Geographical information systems and spatial...

This paper presents the results of research on the applicability of neural networks in the process of computer calibration of a microsimulation traffic model. VISSIM microsimulation model is used for calibration done at the example of roundabouts in an urban area. The calibration method is based on the prediction of a neural network for one traffic indicator, i.e. for the traveling time between...

Computer microsimulation is capable of generating detailed reconstructions and forecasts of the numbers of living kin that members of a population have. The available detail, specificity, and consistency of vital rates for the past and the accuracy of vital rates projected for the future necessarily limit the accuracy of the kinship estimates that can be produced. This study updates the validit...