observed spells will be shorter than the average spell, and long spells will be underrepresented in the sample.

62. Summary _statistics_ are presented in Table XIII. The sample appears to be younger than the one drawn from the Unemployment Registry, with almost 70 percent of all individuals under the age of 35 at the beginning of the corresponding spell. However, the higher fraction of young workers is partly a consequence of the exclusion from the sample of all individuals above 55 due to their small number. The share of workers with no previous labor market experience is again around 30 percent, and the regional distribution of the unemployed is also close to that described for the Unemployment Registry. The large majority of the workers possesses either an apprenticeship degree (40 percent) or secondary studies (40 percent). These numbers imply that both samples are fairly similar in terms of the demographic characteristics of the unemployed and their spatial distribution, despite the differences in the sampling methodology.

63. Household heads represent 20 percent of the sample, compared to 17 percent for spouses and 61 percent for other household members (mainly children living with parents). The average household size is 4.4 individuals, and the dependency ratio (i.e. fraction of household members below 15 or above 65 years of age) is about 20 percent.

64. Approximately 53 percent of all individuals are paid unemployment insurance during the unemployment spell, while 31 percent receive social assistance/support. There is some overlapping between both programs, with 18 percent of those receiving unemployment insurance, also getting social assistance/support. Moreover, 10 percent (18 percent) of the unemployed live in households where some other member receives unemployment insurance (social assistance/support). Finally, about 90 percent of the sample is registered at the Employment Office, almost half of it declares to be searching actively for a job (i.e. using search channels other than registration at the Employment Office), and 15 percent finds employment during the survey period. Notice, however, that this figure is an underestimate of the percentage of workers who eventually find a job, since we do not observe workers for the totality of their spell."<sup>5</sup> 65. Benefit recipients are again slightly different, in demographic terms, from nonrecipients. As in the Unemployment Registry sample, the fraction of married, prime-aged, mid-level education workers is higher among recipients. Also, unemployment spells are longer for recipients and, contrary to the Unemployment Registry data, they exhibit lower exit-to-employment rates than their counterparts. With respect to household level variables, household heads tend to be over-represented in this group, while spouses of heads are underrepresented. Unemployment rates are higher for those household where there are recipients, which is not surprising since social assistance/support/SS are means-tested programs and we would expect income to be lower in households where unemployment rates are high.

> 15 In fact, this will be very important when we interpret the results on the effect of benefits on exit-toemployment.

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