microWELT: Socio-Demographic Parameters and Projections for Austria, Spain, Finland, and the UK

The aim of this paper is twofold: First, it provides an overview of the socio-demographic core modules of the dynamic microsimulation model microWELT. Second, it describes the essential socio-demographic characteristics of four European countries – Austria, Spain, Finland, and UK as representatives of four welfare state regimes (conservative, mediterranean, universalistic, and liberal) – and the processes that drive socio-demographic change which we aim at capturing with the model. MicroWELT is developed as a tool for the comparative study of the distributional effects of four welfare state regimes, represented by the four studied countries. Processes with potential links to welfare state types include 1. the intergenerational transmission of education, 2. childlessness and fertility by education, 3. partnership behaviours and lone parenthood, 4. age at leaving home, and 5. mortality differentials by sex and education. Through microWELT projections, we identify the impact of these processes on the future population composition by age, sex, education, and family characteristics of the studied countries. This paper is part of a series of related papers and other resources which together build comprehensive documentation and presentation of the research performed developing and using microWELT. All materials are available at the project website www.microWELT.eu.