Input Data¶

You can use OpenFisca with two kind of input information:

either test case: you simulate the legislation for one standard situation
or data: you give a whole population (survey with aggregated data for example) on which you want to apply the legislation.

Scenario¶

The interface between input information and input variables that OpenFisca can handle is called Scenario.

Technically speaking, OpenFisca is using vector computing for performance reasons via the NumPy Python package

Whatever the input is, test case or data, the scenario converts it into vectors internally.

Application: how to create a scenario¶

After initializing the Tax and Benefit System, you now want to create a scenario that will allow you in a second step to give input information.

# Create a scenario
scenario = tax_benefit_system.new_scenario()

Test cases¶

Test case describes persons and entities with their input variables or attributes.

You may add information at individual level or at entity level. One input is crucial and shouldn’t be forgotten: the period of the simulation.

Application: how to initialize a scenario¶

Test cases can be expressed in Python or in JSON when using the Web API (see the specific section of the documentation).

In Python you have to use the init_single_entity function based on the scenario. To give to every person of your test case attributes, you have to use the Python dictionnary object.

We show here the Python expression for a family constituted by:

two parents (with attributes: her age or her date_naissance and her salaire_de_base),
two children (with attribute: their age),
a house (with attributes: the loyer and the statut_occupation_logement)

# Initialize test case
scenario.init_single_entity(
    period = 2015,
# Variable describing the individuals
    parent1 = dict(
        age = 30,
        salaire_de_base = 15000, # Annual basis
        ),
    parent2 = dict(
        date_naissance = date(1980, 1, 1),
        salaire_de_base = 70000, # Annual basis
        ),
     enfants = [
        dict(age = 12),
        dict(age = 18),
        ],
 # Variable describing the entity
    menage = dict(loyer = 12000, # Annual basis
            statut_occupation_logement = u"Locataire ou sous-locataire
                                      d'un logement loué vide non-HLM",
            ),
    )

Notice that some input variables are associated to individus (“parent1” , “parent2” and “children”) whereas other are related to entity (“menage”).

WARNING: Declare the input variables on an annual basis.

HINT: For categorical variable you may use either the modality or its number. Example with the statut d’occupation du logement:

# Declaration of categorical variable
menage = dict(loyer = 12000,
           statut_occupation_logement = 4,
           )

Data¶

Using data as input is not documented yet. Please consult this repository: https://github.com/openfisca/openfisca-france-data

Table Of Contents