MEDUSA - Modelling Equity and DistribUtional impacts for Socioeconomic Analysis

Contents

• Introduction

  • The package

  • The microsimulation model

• Installation Guide

• Getting Started

Introduction

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The package

MEDUSA is an R package that allows the development of distributional analyses in isolation or in connection with other models (soft links). The extensive database in which the microsimulation model is based allows for highly disaggregated results, taking into account numerous socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of households, such as income level, place of residence, type of family or the feminization degree of the household. Additionally, the package combines these with the calculation of energy and transport poverty indices.

❗❗ Note: At the moment, medusa package works for Spain, but in the short term the idea is to extend it to all EU countries. Moreover, the package could be extended to all countries that are able to provide the raw data of the model.

The microsimulation model

MEDUSA allows to develop distributional analyses based in an overnight effect microsimulation model. The model is built up with the microdata from the Household Budget Survey. For more details on the model in which medusa is based click here.

Installation Guide

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To use medusa package first you need to follow this steps:

1. Install R and Rstudio (only if not already installed)

   • To download R click here

   • To download Rstudio click here

2. Load medusa package. For this, open Rstudio and load the library:

   install.packages('remotes')
   options(timeout=400)                             # to prevent errors if the connection is slow
   remotes::install_github("bc3LC/medusa")
   library(medusa)

❗❗ This may take a few minutes because the package contains a lot of data.

Now the package is fully loaded and you can start using its functions.

Getting Started

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The medusa package contains 3 main blocks of functions:

1. Module 1. Functions to calculate distributional impacts
   • Main function: calc_di, ex_shocks, available_var_impact , available_var_intersec and ex_var_intersec.
   • Auxiliary functions: load_rawhbs, rename_values, standardize, add_coicop, elevate_hbs, price_shock, impact, impact_intersectional, basic_graph, intersectional_graph, order_var, adjust_wh and adjust_wh_is.
2. Module 2. Functions to calculate energy poverty indices
   • Main function: calc_ep
   • Auxiliary functions: id_ep1, id_ep2, weighted.median and weighted.quantile.
3. Module 3. Functions to calculate transport poverty indices
   • Main function: calc_tp
   • Auxiliary functions: id_tp, weighted.median and weighted.quantile.

In addition, the package includes some default input files (.Rda), that are read by the different functions.