Summary of parameters by reform

[MaxGhenis]

It would be helpful to have a summary table for each parameter, showing its values across reforms (and current policy).

The schema could be {parameter, reform, value}, with a summary like {parameter, first_reform} (this would require a structured date of introduction for each reform).

This could replace manual documentation of some parameters originating in TCJA, as discussed in #1765.

[andersonfrailey]

@MaxGhenis, if my understanding of your issue is correct, we have a way to produce something similar. When working with the Python API, you can use the reform_documentation(reform) method in the calculator class and it will return some text containing all of the policy parameters that have been changed along with a short description and the baseline and reform values. The CLI will also automatically produce a text file with this information.

I'm not sure this is exactly what you're looking for, but it is one way to see the changes in a reform file in more context.

[MaxGhenis]

Thanks for the info @andersonfrailey, I'm looking for a summary across all reforms though, i.e. those listed in https://github.com/open-source-economics/Tax-Calculator/tree/master/taxcalc/reforms

For example, this table would reveal that _DependentCredit_Child_c is in all TCJA reforms, and not in other reforms or the current policy.

It sounds like the reform_documentation function could be a helpful tool for generating this, by looping over files in that folder.

[martinholmer]

@MaxGhenis said:

Thanks for the info @andersonfrailey, I'm looking for a summary across all reforms though, i.e. those listed in https://github.com/open-source-economics/Tax-Calculator/tree/master/taxcalc/reforms

For example, this table would reveal that _DependentCredit_Child_c is in all TCJA reforms, and not in other reforms or the current policy.

It sounds like the reform_documentation function could be a helpful tool for generating this, by looping over files in that folder.

Sounds like an interesting project, @MaxGhenis. We look forward to your pull request.

[MattHJensen]

Sounds like an interesting project, @MaxGhenis. We look forward to your pull request.

Agreed!

[martinholmer]

@MaxGhenis, If you are serious about pursuing this topic, consider developing a pull request that contributes an advanced recipe to the Cookbook of Tested Recipes for Python Programming with Tax-Calculator.

[MaxGhenis]

This spreadsheet is the result of this notebook, which pulls down parameters for each reform.

@martinholmer since this is more of a reference than an analysis (it doesn't even use taxcalc, just normal json operations), would it still fit as a recipe?

[martinholmer]

@MaxGhenis said:

This spreadsheet is the result of this notebook, which pulls down parameters for each reform.

Since this is more of a reference than an analysis (it doesn't even use taxcalc, just normal json operations), would it still fit as a recipe?

Probably not. Thanks for sharing your notebook with us.

[martinholmer]

@MaxGhenis, Thanks again for this notebook, which generates these results, that you mentioned in issue #1777.