Skills Dynamics and (the Need for) Longitudinal Data

Skills dynamics analyses are frequently carried on the basis of synchronic data, namely the one provided by firms’ Employment Records. As this kind of surveys are designed to depict formal employment, not only separation spells but also most infra annual flows are not taken into consideration. Neither is there any data on vocational training and job experience, as well. Empirical evidence we have been obtaining from some previous research points both to the importance skills development strategies are taking along those non-employment spells and also to some qualification strategies which encompass both job-to-job and job-to-unemployment (inactivity) /unemployment (inactivity)- to-job flows. Also, analyses usually developed generally fail to take into consideration the influence exerted by economic cycles upon individual trajectories, in which skills development decisions are also supposed to play a major role. Therefore, we’ll try to stress the adequacy both of duration models and longitudinal data on which those models should rely in order to shed light on the above mentioned features.