Midlands State University Library

The ‘effective’ measure of unemployment benefit duration: data on spells or individuals?

ARRANZ, Jose Maria

The ‘effective’ measure of unemployment benefit duration: data on spells or individuals? - Applied Economics Letters Volume , number , .

Using administrative data, this article measures the ‘effective’ duration of unemployment benefit recipiency. Our results suggest that this duration varies considerably when we use spells instead of data on individuals. The exit hazard rate from unemployment using spells is overestimated when compared to the one obtained with data on individuals and, therefore, the expected duration of unemployment benefit recipiency is underestimated.


duration of unemployment
unemployment benefits
administrative data