European Symposium on Policy Modelling: Carbon Tax, Cross-border social security, Inequality, and Pension systems

Context

On 25 March 2026, LISER will host a one‑day symposium within the Erasmus+ project ecoMod – capacity building in environmental and economic policy modelling and data analysis initiative, complemented by dedicated sessions funded by the FNR-CORE project SPIN. The event brings together researchers working on cross-border tax-benefit modelling, carbon taxation, inequality, and pension reforms across Europe.

The programme is organized into three thematic clusters:

Carbon taxation, cost‑of‑living pressures, and policy responses
New evidence on VAT pass‑through and distributional effects; universal basic income as a stabilizer; cross‑border tax–benefit coordination; gender dimensions of carbon emissions. A dedicated segment by the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) introduces new consumption data.
Inequality across time, space, and countries
Advances in income‑generation models; municipal‑level population modeling; AI‑enhanced methods for inequality research; pathways to combine micro- and macrosimulation models.
Pension systems and reforms
A new typology of pension system designs; Luxembourg‑specific pension system diagnostics; policy analysis of pension reform scenarios using dynamic microsimulation models for Germany and Switzerland.

Conference programme

Last updated: Feb. 26.

8:30 AM - to: 9:00 AM

Registration and coffee

9:00 AM - to: 9:10 AM

Welcome address by Denisa M. Sologon

9:10 AM - to: 10:30 AM

Cluster 1 - Carbon tax, cost of living crisis, and policy responses

Session 1

09:10–09:30 — Robin Anderl — Distributional effects of VAT in Switzerland
09:30–09:50 — Patrick Oschwald — UBI in Switzerland
09:50–10:10 — Michael Christl — Cross-border tax–benefit rules (SPIN)
10:10–10:30 — Alicia Garrido-Perez — Gender inequality in carbon emissions

10:30–10:50 — Coffee break

Session 2

10:50–11:10 — Luis Manso — Estimating the potential impact of GenAI through EUROMOD
11:10–11:30 — Jörg Neugschwender — LIS: New consumption data
11:30–11:50 — Tanja Kirn — AI and conventional methods of consumption estimation
11:50–12:10 — Sofia Maier — Green EUROMOD: simulating carbon taxes for a just transition

12:10 PM - to: 1:30 PM

Lunch break

1:30 PM - to: 3:10 PM

Cluster 2 - Inequality across time, space, and countries

13:30–13:50 — Denisa M. Sologon — A generalized microsimulation-decomposition approach for understanding the drivers of inequality: Across Countries, Time, Nowcasting, Spatial Units (SPIN)
13:50–14:10 — Ana Montes — Geography, Demographics and Tax-Benefit Policy: Understanding Local Income Inequality Using Spatial Microsimulation (SPIN)
14:10 –14:30 — Ingrid Schockaert — Challenges in municipal spatial population and household modelling: DEMUS-Flanders
14:30–14:50 — Frédéric Berger — Combining micro- and macro-simulation models in Luxembourg
14:50–15:10 — STATEC (tbc) — Presentation

3:10 PM - to: 3:40 PM

Coffee break

3:40 PM - to: 5:00 PM

Cluster 3 - Pension systems: trends, reforms, and projections

15:40–16:00 — Kun Lee — Beyond Beveridge and Bismarck: a new typology of pension systems for the 21st century
16:00–16:20 — Philippe Liégeois — Luxembourg pension MIDAS_LU (tbc)
16:20–16:40 — Jörg Althammer — Reforming survivor’s pensions in Germany – an application of MIDAS_DE
16:40–17:00 — Tanja Kirn — Vertical equity in public pension schemes – MIDAS_CH

5:00 PM - to: 5:30 PM

Closing address by Prof. Tanja Kirn

Followed by a farewell drink

Organizing committee

Denisa M. Sologon

Senior Research Scientist

Denisa M. Sologon holds the position of Senior Research Scientist at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER). Her research programme involves quantitative approaches to welfare economics, in particular income inequality, income distribution dynamics, taxation, social policy and social protection, social mobility, environmental policy and health. A key theme in her work is understanding the social, economic, and policy drivers of inequality. Her main interests are in the development and application of policy microsimulation models and the quantitative analysis of large data sources (administrative, survey) to aid the design, evaluation and improvement of public policy.

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Research Portal

Tanja Kirn

Assistant Professor of Public Finance at the University of Liechtenstein

Tanja Kirn works in the field of public economics with a strong research focus on microsimulation, tax policy and fiscal federalism. Tanja Kirn has developed several microsimulation models which have become firmly established as vital tools for analysis of the revenue and distributional impact of current and proposed policies. Her current research interests include extending the scope and capabilities of microsimulation models. She is a member of the International Microsimulation Association. Prior to joining the University of Liechtenstein Tanja worked as a research assistant at the University of Potsdam and the DIW Berlin.

Acknowledgments

Co-funded by the European Union (ECOMOD Project 2023-1-LI01-KA220-HED-000157594). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or Agentur für Internationale Bildungsangelegenheiten AIBA. Neither the European Union nor AIBA can be held responsible for them.
Supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) (SPIN project C22/SC/17411636).