To illustrate the importance of this point, this paper re-produces part of the analysis done by Bane & Ellwood to provide evidence on the gap in measured SA spell durations when comparing stock and flow samples in countries for which monthly data are available. To minimize the impact of censoring, calculations have been made for the cross-sectional wave that lies in the middle of the respective observation period: June 1999 (wave 136) for Luxembourg, December 2004 (wave 72) for the Netherlands, December 2000 (wave 96) for Noiway, and June 2005 (wave 54) for Sweden. All samples include short exits from benefits (as the ‘standard sample’ used for panel A of Table 9).