From 5e883a3eb1de2a4e0fe5ffe88dba11a5fd7693b6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Max Ghenis Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2026 09:25:42 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 1/3] Clarify SPM resource allocation and program-benefit independence --- paper/index.qmd | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++---- 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/paper/index.qmd b/paper/index.qmd index 89e7637..5bc741a 100644 --- a/paper/index.qmd +++ b/paper/index.qmd @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ author: affiliations: - name: PolicyEngine email: max@policyengine.org -date: 2026-09-10 +date: 2026-09-12 date-format: long bibliography: ../bibliography/references.bib format: @@ -820,14 +820,30 @@ standalone calculator, with year-specific national bases, housing shares, geographic indices, assignments, and source fingerprints. The pinned calculator includes PolicyEngine, Microcosm, and native Axiom adapters that consume these quantities through explicit contracts. Population -sources supply native SPM membership -and composition roles; tax-benefit models retain responsibility for -resources, and the population system retains its weights. A change of +sources supply native SPM membership and composition roles; +tax-benefit models retain responsibility for resources, including +ordinary income, program awards, and the housing-assistance cap, and the +population system retains its weights. A change of rules engine does not require a second expenditure forecast. Runtime parity and release integration are separate checks from the statistical validity of the projection. The snapshot date does not reconstruct historical information sets or certify a public deployment. +In population applications, the threshold's housing portion limits the +housing subsidy counted as an SPM resource. The accompanying resource +specification sums modeled awards within a household, allocates the total +to SPM units by member share, and applies each unit's cap after allocation, +following Census's subsidy proration [@spmtechnical, p. 14]. It treats +interview-time public or reduced-rent housing status as full-year +assistance to a program family represented by the householder's SPM unit, +because the survey does not identify that family. It allocates the tenant +contributions of units with positive awards by the same shares; Census +does not document this split, so it is a declared consistency assumption +rather than verified production parity. Program eligibility and awards +do not depend on the cap. These choices concern resource valuation and +do not change the threshold estimates reported here. They do not revise +the separately preserved historical poverty sensitivity. + Tables regenerate from the recorded artifacts. The build checks their hashes before generating outputs in temporary storage and comparing the results with the saved tables and evaluation JSON. Archived tables no From 298d97eef512fe1796f0462cd8469c24c7197d02 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Max Ghenis Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2026 09:57:21 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 2/3] Pin the separately documented resource conventions --- paper/index.qmd | 7 ++++++- 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/paper/index.qmd b/paper/index.qmd index 5bc741a..3d371ef 100644 --- a/paper/index.qmd +++ b/paper/index.qmd @@ -829,6 +829,10 @@ parity and release integration are separate checks from the statistical validity of the projection. The snapshot date does not reconstruct historical information sets or certify a public deployment. +The resource conventions below are specified separately in the +[PolicyEngine-US resource contract](https://github.com/PolicyEngine/policyengine-us/blob/7b2ef566aee52db17fe1d8ab5d0a744669802506/docs/spm.md). +That contract is outside the calculator artifacts pinned above and does +not reproduce or revise the preserved historical poverty sensitivity. In population applications, the threshold's housing portion limits the housing subsidy counted as an SPM resource. The accompanying resource specification sums modeled awards within a household, allocates the total @@ -837,7 +841,8 @@ following Census's subsidy proration [@spmtechnical, p. 14]. It treats interview-time public or reduced-rent housing status as full-year assistance to a program family represented by the householder's SPM unit, because the survey does not identify that family. It allocates the tenant -contributions of units with positive awards by the same shares; Census +contributions of units with positive modeled awards, before allocation, +by the same shares; Census does not document this split, so it is a declared consistency assumption rather than verified production parity. Program eligibility and awards do not depend on the cap. These choices concern resource valuation and From e98e98bc47cf4ed3dfabf54d166712f1edd42127 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Max Ghenis Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2026 10:12:10 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 3/3] Clarify the tenant-payment allocation sequence --- paper/index.qmd | 6 +++--- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/paper/index.qmd b/paper/index.qmd index 3d371ef..ff9426c 100644 --- a/paper/index.qmd +++ b/paper/index.qmd @@ -840,9 +840,9 @@ to SPM units by member share, and applies each unit's cap after allocation, following Census's subsidy proration [@spmtechnical, p. 14]. It treats interview-time public or reduced-rent housing status as full-year assistance to a program family represented by the householder's SPM unit, -because the survey does not identify that family. It allocates the tenant -contributions of units with positive modeled awards, before allocation, -by the same shares; Census +because the survey does not identify that family. For units whose modeled +award is positive before allocation, it allocates their tenant +contributions by the same member shares; Census does not document this split, so it is a declared consistency assumption rather than verified production parity. Program eligibility and awards do not depend on the cap. These choices concern resource valuation and