Interest in unemployment compensation transcends disciplinary boundaries. Research on it deals with both the sources of relative generosity in national systems and the consequences of that generosity for work incentives and the incidence of poverty. A significant proportion of the research on these subjects involves cross-national analyses using data sets from the OECD containing information on components of the unemployment compensation system. In this article we examine the adequacy of the data used for the purposes to which it is put – and find it seriously wanting in several respects.
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