PolicyEngine / PolicyEngine/policyengine-us

Uprate SPM thresholds with a more realistic index

Open
#5,054 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
Python
Stars
163
Forks
213
Avg merge
3d 3h
Merged PRs (30d)
96

Description

The Census Bureau defines SPM thresholds based on expenditures. This rises consistently faster than CPI, which is what we currently index to:

https://github.com/PolicyEngine/policyengine-us/blob/6525e72ffc89aca67e88ba6381dfa063be0123bc/policyengine_us/variables/household/income/spm_unit/spm_unit_spm_threshold.py#L10

Let's either identify a forecast of expenditures (ideally on the relevant categories: food, clothing, shelter, and utilities), or otherwise construct one based on CPI plus the typical delta.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with policyengine_us/variables/household/income/spm_unit/spm_unit_spm_threshold.py at the linked definition and review how the current CPI index is applied. Research expenditure forecasts for food, clothing, shelter, and utilities, or compare CPI with expenditure growth to define the alternative. Done means the SPM thresholds use a justified expenditure-based index or documented CPI adjustment.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
data
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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