OPERATIONAL VALIDATION USING SIMULATION MODELS DESIGNED AND CREATED WITH DIFFERENT PARADIGMS

Simulation is a proven method in industry but is also used to model social systems where it helps to study human behavior, technology diffusion, policy implications, demographic trends or overall impact of governmental decisions. Simulation models, in order to be a valuable decision support tool, should undergo extensive verification and validation (V&V) to confirm their reliability. Conducting V&V is always a major challenge, but it is especially difficult in the case of social simulations, which often reach far into the future and have limited access to empirical data. In this paper, we present the results of the operational validation stage for the simulation of the pension system. We conducted operational validation by comparing the performance of two simulation models developed under the same assumptions but according to different simulation paradigms: Monte Carlo and Discrete Event Simulation approach.