UMDBS - A New Tool for Dynamic Microsimulation

Microsimulation is a powerful method for analysis and forecasting especially in the field of economics and social science. One of the main reasons for its relatively rare usage is that until now there has been no standard software available. The Universal Micro DataBase System, UMDBS, is a new tool that runs on any Windows PC. It is suited for all tasks involved in running a microsimulation starting from the import of external data, the development of the simulation model, to the analysis of the results. It includes MISTRAL, an integrated modelling language that allows implementing the simulation models as well as analysing the micro data. After a short introduction to microsimulation, this article first presents the UMDBS and its main functions. Then an overview to the new modelling language MISTRAL is given including the features, the structure, and the implementation. Finally information is given about how to get UMDBS for free.