Go back to a historical year, load sourced observations, and test three alternative economic paths against the record. A city’s actual history remains separate from the simulation.
Every number carries its date, definition, source, and data vintage. Nothing entered here overwrites the actual history stored in a file.
| Year / metric | Observed value | Definition | Published source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loading historic figures… | ||||
Source-cited BLS city unemployment and NYC Census population estimates. Each pack shows dates, scope and caveats. Your edited observations are never overwritten.
Loading published source packs…
Bundled source catalog. No background network refresh and no server-side player storage.
Check whether imported observations match the selected years, city boundaries and dollar definitions. This is a comparability check, not independent verification of publishers.
Click “Check dataset” to review the selected source records.
No year is filled by interpolation. The lab does not fetch or authenticate source URLs, normalize city/metro boundaries, or convert nominal money into constant dollars.
Inspect each observed statistic's geography, date, and price definition before using it to judge the simulation.
The game simulates a city proper—not an entire metropolitan region.
| Observed | Scope | Method | Compare? |
|---|
No geographic boundary estimation or conversion is made. A compatible label is not proof of empirical accuracy.
The catalog offers Los Angeles state municipal population estimates and a separate BLS metro unemployment series for each city. Metro series are strictly reference-only.
Expand coverage without combining city and metro boundaries.
| Year | Metro series | Observed rate | Source |
|---|
Metro-area statistics are contextual and cannot be selected for city-proper model scoring.
Compare purchasing power or two source vintages. Both tools are read-only until you explicitly import a separately exported dataset. Neither rewrites observed history.
BLS U.S. city-average CPI-U all items, annual average. Converts home prices and monthly rents only; it is not a local house-price index or a GDP deflator.
No observation is changed until you deliberately import the derived file.
| Year · indicator | Published value | Converted value | Factor | Method note |
|---|
BLS CPI-U published annual index ↗ · 2025 annual average is missing October; no 2025 conversion. No missing CPI years are invented.
Select an alternate JSON dataset previously exported from this lab. Examine added, removed or revised observations, including units, geography and data vintage. Nothing is replaced automatically.
Current source observations remain unchanged during this review.
| Year · indicator | Difference | Existing value | Alternate value | Changed fields |
|---|
Interpretation: Rebasing dollars using national CPI-U does not harmonize city boundaries, survey methods, GDP definitions, revisions, property-price indices, or fiscal concepts. Simulated city outcomes remain synthetic; the original historical source values and links remain visible.
Measure error by indicator and policy path, withholding selected years from the comparison setup. No parameters are fitted; this is not proof of predictive accuracy.
Enter sourced historical observations and choose the first evaluation year.
| Evaluation | Indicator | Path | N | MAE | Naive MAE | Mean bias |
|---|
The observed points are never changed by the simulated outcomes.
Lines = counterfactual simulation. Isolated diamonds = actual reported observations; no missing years are invented.
| Year | Indicator | Observed | Capitalism | Socialism | Mixed | Comparison status |
|---|
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau · BLS LAUS · BEA regional accounts. Metro/county GDP cannot be assumed to equal city GDP.