The advantages and disadvantages of important datasets in the field of Comparative employment relations

The availability of data with which to perform statistical analyses has always been the Achilles’ heel of empirical research in the field of comparative employment relations (ER). While data availability is challenging for almost all country comparative research in social sciences, it is especially difficult for ER, since the relevant institutions, practices and actors are shaped and formed by complex country traditions which are difficult to operationalise for empirical research. Notwithstanding these difficulties, over the past few decades, several attempts have been made to collect ER data in order to identify and make inferences based upon similarities and differences in ER across countries, and to be able to derive and test generalisable conclusions on ER phenomena. In this chapter, the most prominent and important data collection efforts and databases are outlined and their advantages and disadvantages are critically discussed.