On the reliability of retrospective unemployment information in European household panel data

Tomi Kyyrä and Ralf Wilke

No 21, Working Papers from VATT Institute for Economic Research

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 a successful recall is 96% in the UK, it is just 51% in Greece for a comparable individual. These evident data problems likely affect the results of cross country comparisons.

Keywords: Recall error; unemployment; ECHP; Labour market; Työmarkkinat; Labor market and policies promoting economic growth; Työmarkkinat ja kasvua tukeva politiikka; C810 - Methodology for Collecting; Estimating; and Organizing Microeconomic Data; J640 - Unemployment: Models; Duration; Incidence; and Job Search (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-lab
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/148760

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Journal Article: On the reliability of retrospective unemployment information in European household panel data (2014)
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