Tell us a bit about you - what is your background?

Carlos Farinha Rodrigues: My name is Carlos Farinha Rodrigues and I am Associate Professor at the Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Universidade de Lisboa (ISEG/UL). Since 2014 I am the coordinator of the Master Course (M.Sc.) in Economics and Public Policy at ISEG. I am member of Cemapre (Centre for Applied Mathematics and Economics) where I research income distribution, inequality, poverty and social policy. I am member of the board of the Institute of Public Policy Thomas Jefferson and a consultant of Statistics Portugal in the area of income distribution and household statistics. Recently I was a member of the commission elaborating the National Anti-Poverty Strategy proposal. Actually, I am the scientific advisor of La Caixa Foundation’s Proinfancia Program against child poverty in Portugal. In recent years, my research has been focused on applied micro-economics with particular reference to Income Distribution, Poverty and Inequality; Social Policy; Evaluation of Public Policies; Redistribution, Microsimulation.

Joana Vicente: Regarding my academic background, I have a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s in economics and public policy. Currently, I am a final-year Economics Ph.D. candidate at ISEG (University of Lisbon), where I am also a teaching assistant. Professionally, I started working at Deloitte as a tax consultant in the transfer pricing department, but in the last couple of years I’ve been a research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Lisbon (a Portuguese think tank), where I had the chance to participate in projects in the fields of social policies, public finances and European Union economic policy, contributing on a regular basis with publications and interventions in Portuguese media.

David Leite Neves: I am PhD candidate at the Paris School of Economics under the supervision of Antoine Bozio. My research interests include the optimal design of tax systems, behavioral responses to taxes and evaluation of public policies. I hold a Bachelor’s in Economics and Master in Econometrics from the University of Lisbon, and a Master in Analysis and Policy in Economics from the Paris School of Economics and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. My previous positions include the Portuguese Central Bank (2014-2015), the office of the Portuguese Finance Minister (2016-2017) and the OECD economics department (2018-2019).

Amílcar Moreira: I am Assistant Professor at the Lisbon School of Economics & Management, University of Lisbon. Previously, I held appointments at Trinity College Dublin and OsloMet. I am currently a member of the Board at ESPANET (European Social Policy Network) and Member of the Board of SOCIUS, Research Centre in Economic and Organizational Sociology. I am also the Principal Investigator of DYNAPOR – Dynamic microsimulation model of the Portuguese Pension System. I have a PhD in Social Policy Sciences from the University of Bath. In recent years, my research has been focused on the one side, on the financial and social sustainability of the Portuguese pension system; and, on the other, on the role of welfare systems in responding to the COVID crisis (first) and the current cost-of-living crisis.

When and what was your first contact with EUROMOD?

Carlos Farinha Rodrigues: In the 90s I was doing my PhD in Cambridge under the supervision of Tony Atkinson and he invited me to participate in the first EUROMOD meeting. Since then, I coordinate the Portuguese EUROMOD team.  

Joana Vicente: After starting to work at the Institute of Public Policy Lisbon, in 2017, I was invited to join the EUROMOD Portuguese national team, as I was developing other research projects in social policies, in particular researching options for reforming pension systems. Right at the beginning of that year, I had the opportunity to participate in the EUROMOD training session in Essex, and that was when my first contact with EUROMOD was established.

David Leite Neves: My first contact with EUROMOD was in 2014 at Portuguese Central Bank. From 2016 to 2017, I used EUROMOD to perform distributional impact assessment of the Portuguese State Budget at the Portuguese Ministry of Finance. Since 2019, I have used EUROMOD in the context of my PhD research.

Amílcar Moreira: Of course, as someone with an interest in the field of microsimulation, I have been aware of EUROMOD for a long time. However, as the Principal Investigator of DYNAPOR, my work in this field has focused on dynamic microsimulation. Only when joining the EUROMOD’s Portuguese Team did I start to work more closely with EUROMOD – which I look forward to work in, and to use as a tool for developing social policy research in the future.

What are your main responsibilities and what is your experience with EUROMOD?

Carlos Farinha Rodrigues: In addition to coordinating the Portuguese team, I am responsible for all aspects related to the quality of the statistical information underlying the production of the EUROMOD dataset, using my experience at the Portuguese Statistical Office in this field. I am also in charge of modelling policy developments in Portugal into the EUROMOD platform, mainly the ones concerning with anti-poverty policies like the minimum income. I am also responsible for liaising with different Portuguese public administration bodies (Ministry of Finance, PlanAPP, etc.) that use EUROMOD to simulate the effects of different policies.

Joana Vicente: In line with the work that I develop at the Institute of Public Policy Lisbon, more focused in assessing Portuguese budget transparency and public finances (aiming for an in-depth analysis of the national State Budget), I’m responsible mainly for collecting and documenting in the Country Report the set of policy rules (direct taxes, social insurance contributions and benefits), feeding the uprating factors for the model and collecting external statistics for the macrovalidation process.

David Leite Neves: I contribute to the design and implementation of policies in EUROMOD and on the validation of the model with external data.

Amílcar Moreira: I have responsibilities both in the preparation of the PT EUROMOD dataset and in modelling policy developments in Portugal into the EUROMOD platform.

Would you like to share any recent highlights for your country?

One of the most relevant aspects of the current use of EUROMOD in Portugal is that different government bodies are beginning to use EUROMOD to simulate the redistributive effects of public policies. The Portuguese EUROMOD team established contacts with the Ministry of Finance and with PlanAPP (Competence Centre for Planning, Policy and Foresight in Public Administration) for different approaches to using the model as a support tool for public policies.