Abstract
The retrospectively recalled calendar of activities in the European Community Household Panel is a prime resource for cross-country analysis of unemployment experience. We investigate the reliability of these data and find that 26 % of unemployed respondents misreported retrospectively their unemployment status in the subsequent interview. We observe large differences across countries: While the conditional probability of consistent information is 96 % in the UK, it is just 51 % in Greece for a comparable individual. By analyzing long-term unemployment and unemployment persistence, we show that the results of cross-country comparisons are strongly affected by these data problems.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Empirical Economics |
Volume | 46 |
Issue number | 4 |
Pages (from-to) | 1473-1493 |
ISSN | 0377-7332 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |