A period can be a month, a year, n successive months, n successive years or the eternity.
The smallest unit for OpenFisca periods is the month. Therefore:
An Instant is a specific day, such as a cutoff date.
Internally, periods are stored as:
- a start instant
- a unit (MONTH, YEAR)
- a quantity of units.
In OpenFisca inputs, periods are encoded in strings. All the valid period formats are referenced in this table:
| Period format | Period type | Example | Represents | Disambiguation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
AAAA |
Calendar year | '2010' |
The year 2010. | From the 1st of January 2010 to the 31st of December 2010, inclusive. |
AAAA-MM |
Month | '2010-04' |
The month of April 2010. | From the 1st of April 2010 to the 30th of April 2010, inclusive. |
year:AAAA-MM |
Rolling year | 'year:2010-04' |
The 1 year period starting in April 2010. | From the 1st of April 2010 to the 31st of March 2011, inclusive |
year:AAAA:N |
N years | 'year:2010:3' |
The years 2010, 2011 and 2012. | From the 1st of January 2010 to the 31st of December 2012, inclusive. |
year:AAAA-MM:N |
N rolling years | 'year:2010-04:3' |
The three years period starting in April 2010. | From the 1st of April 2010 to the 31st of March 2013, inclusive. |
month:AAAA-MM:N |
N months | 'month:2010-04:3' |
The three months from April to June 2010. | From the 1st of April 2010 to the 30th of June 2010, inclusive. |
ETERNITY |
Forever | ETERNITY |
All of time. | All past, present and future day, month or year |
This YAML test on income_tax evolution over time shows periods’ impact on a variable
- name: Income tax over time
period: 2016-01
input_variables:
salary:
year:2014:3: 100000 # This person earned 100,000 between 2014 and 2016
output_variables:
income_tax:
2014-01: 388.8889
2015-01: 416.6667 # The income tax rate changes in 2015
2016-01: 416.6667
2017-01: 0 # The salary is not set for this period and defaults to 0
class salary(Variable):
value_type = float
entity = Person
label = u"Salary for a month"
definition_period = MONTH
def formula(person, period):
...
Most of the values calculated in OpenFisca, such as income_tax, and housing_allowance, can change over time.
Therefore, all OpenFisca variables have a definition_period attribute:
definition_period = MONTH: The variable may have a different value each month. For example, the salary of a person. When formula is executed, the parameter period will always be a whole month. Trying to compute salary with a period that is not a month will raise an error before entering formula.definition_period = YEAR: The variable is defined for a year or it has always the same value every months of a year. For example, if taxes are to be paid yearly, the corresponding variable is yearly. When formula is executed, the parameter period will always be a whole year (from January 1st to December 31th).definition_period = ETERNITY: The value of the variable is constant. For example, the date of birth of a person never changes. period is still the 2nd parameter of formula. However when formula is executed, the parameter period can be anything and it should not be used.Each formula calculates the value of a variable for a period the size of the given definition period. This period is always the second argument of the formulas.
definition_period¶Calling a formula with a period that is incompatible with the attribute definition_period will cause an error. For instance, if we assume that a person salary is paid monthly:
class taxes(Variable):
value_type = float
entity = Person
label = u"Taxes for a whole year"
definition_period = YEAR
def formula(person, period): # period is a year because definition_period = YEAR
salary_past_year = person('salary', period) # salary is a montly variable. This will cause an error.
...
However, sometimes, we do need to estimate a variable for a different period than the one it is defined for.
We may for example want to get the sum of the salaries perceived on the past year, or the past 3 months. The option ADD tells openfisca to split the period into months, compute the variable for each month and sum up the results:
class taxes(Variable):
value_type = float
entity = Person
label = "Taxes for a whole year"
definition_period = YEAR
def formula(person, period): # period is a year because definition_period = YEAR
salary_last_year = person('salary', period, options = [ADD])
...
The option DIVIDE allows you to do the opposite: evaluating a quantity for a month while the variable is defined for a year. OpenFisca computes the variable for the whole year that contains the specified month and then divides the result by 12.
class salary_net_of_taxes(Variable):
value_type = float
entity = Person
label = u"Monthly salary, net of taxes"
definition_period = MONTH
def formula(person, period): # period is a month because definition_period = MONTH
# The variable taxes is computed on a year, monthly_taxes equals the 12th of that result
monthly_taxes = person('taxes', period, options = [DIVIDE])
# salary is a monthly variable, period is a month: no option is required
salary = person('salary', period)
return salary - monthly_taxes
It happens that the formula to calculate a variable at a given period needs the value of another variable for another period. Usually, the second period is defined relatively to the first one (previous month, last three month, current year).
For instance, we want to compute an unemployment benefit that equals half of last year’s salary, if the person had no income for the past 3 months.
class unemployment_benefit(Variable):
value_type = float
entity = Person
label = u"Unemployment benefit"
definition_period = MONTH
def formula(person, period):
salary_last_3_months = person('salary', period.last_3_month)
salary_last_year = person('salary', period.last_year)
is_unemployed = (salary_last_3_months == 0)
return 0.5 * salary_last_year * is_unemployed
You can generate any period with the following properties and methods:
| Period | Meaning |
|---|---|
period.this_month |
First month-length period that includes the start of period |
period.last_month |
Month preceding period.this_month |
period.this_year |
First year-length period that includes the start of period |
period.last_year |
Year preceding period.this_year |
period.n_2 |
2 years before period.this_year |
period.last_3_months |
The three-month period preceding period.this_month |
period.offset(n, 'month') |
period translated by n months (backwards if n <0) |
period.offset(n, 'year') |
period translated by n years (backwards if n <0) |
period.start.period('year') |
Year-long period starting a the same time than period |
period.start.period('month') |
Month-long period starting a the same time than period |
period.start.period('year', n) |
n-year-long period starting a the same time than period |
period.start.period('month', n) |
n-month-long period starting a the same time than period |
You can find more information on the Period object in the reference documentation (not available yet)
set_input: Automatically process variable inputs defined for periods not matching the definition_period¶By default, when you provide a simulation input, you won’t be able to set a variable value for a period that doesn’t match its definition_period.
For instance, if the definition_period of salary is MONTH, and you input a value for salary for 2015, an error will be raised.
It is however possible to define an automatic behaviour to cast yearly inputs into monthy values. To do this, add a set_input class attribute to a variable.
set_input = set_input_divide_by_period: the 12 months are set equal to the 12th of the input value,set_input = set_input_dispatch_by_period: the 12 months are set equal to input value.For instance, let’s slightly modify the code of salary:
class salary(Variable):
value_type = float
entity = Person
label = u"Salary for a month"
definition_period = MONTH
set_input = set_input_divide_by_period
def formula(person, period):
...
We can now provide an input for 2015 for salary: no error will be raised, and the value will be automatically split between the 12 months of 2015.