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This report analyses the trends in Finnish productivity growth over the 2000s and 2010s. It describes its key features, makes comparisons to a benchmark of OECD countries, and studies the causes of its sudden and prolonged slowdown which began at the end of the 2000s. The analysis focuses on the role of two contemporaneous demand shocks that hit the Finnish economy and propagated through value chain linkages: the Nokia crisis, the main Finnish firm active in the computer and electronics sector, and the Great Trade Collapse of 2009. Matching detailed firm-based information on structural characteristics of productivity growth with global input-output tables and National Accounts data for 16 OECD countries, the report highlights how the prolonged drop in demand from the domestic computer and electronics sector may have induced a persistent drag on Finnish productivity growth. The Nokia crisis impacted the most productive firms of the supplier sectors, reducing productivity dispersion and lowering the allocative efficiency of resources. A sudden but short-lived shock to foreign demand, such as the one experienced during the Great Trade Collapse, may have large short-term effects on productivity, which nonetheless fade away within three years and do not affect structural features of the economy. The report concludes with policy implications to strengthen Finnish resilience to idiosyncratic shocks to key sectors or large firms, while supporting long-term productivity growth and competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-industrial money supply typically consisted of multiple, often foreign currencies. Standard economic theory implies that this entails welfare loss due to transaction costs imposed by currency exchange. Through a study of novel data on Finnish nineteenth-century parish-level currency conditions, we show that individual currencies had principal areas of circulation, with extensive co-circulation restricted to the boundary regions in between. We show that trade networks, defined here through the regional co-movement of grain prices, proved crucial in determining the currency used. Market institutions and standard price mechanisms had an apparent role in the spread of different currencies and in determining the dominant currency in a given region. Our findings provide a caveat for the widely held assumption that associates multi-currency systems with negative trade externalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes how the boundary between necessary and unnecessary consumption items was defined in Finland in the years following World War II. On the basis of extensive comparative data, it focuses on the history of two items: the washing machine and the cellular phone. The data consist of press coverage and material published by manufacturers and consumer counseling organizations. The need for household appliances was invented, shaped, normalized, and legitimized through a social interaction process in which the media were a central vehicle. The data suggest that the need for novelties is interpreted though similar types of cultural modes, no matter what the product or type of cultural text. Thus, the entry of technology into the home in the postwar years was accompanied by a discussion flavored not only by technological determinism, but also by a form of social and cultural determinism manifested in deep-grounded conceptual distinctions, such as tools versus toys. The world-record pace at which Finnish consumers took up new technology in the postwar period provides illustrative evidence and new stimuli for evaluating the potential for digitalizing the home in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article evaluates the Finnish party and the electoral systems and some main reasons for the outcome and analyses the socio-demographic patterns of party support regarding the Finnish Parliamentary Election of 2019. It further discusses features of the Finnish political parties and the challenges facing them; changing economic structure of Finnish society which favored the National Coalition party; and decreasing number of working-class voters in the Finnish Social Democratic Party (SDP).

This article surveys and appends the available quantitative research on the interwar economic growth of Baltic countries to compare gross domestic product (GDP) (in 1990 Geary–Khamis dollars) growth in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania between 1913 and 1938 in a broad international context. Finland's GDP per capita recovered to the 1913 level in 1923, in Estonia recovery was complete by 1922, in Lithuania by 1924, and in Latvia by 1924–1925. By high-end estimates, the growth performance of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania was not weaker than Finland's. By 1938, the GDP per capita of all Baltic countries exceeded the level of the Soviet Union with the possible exception for Lithuania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Biodiversity is decreasing at an alarming rate. Current policies focus on the most valuable species and habitats but cannot stop the degradation occurring in less valuable habitats. One solution is offsetting the loss of biodiversity caused by development projects. The basic idea of biodiversity offsetting is simple: a developer must provide an improvement in biodiversity so that the lost ecological value is compensated for. A banking mechanism for offsetting entails a third party providing offsets for developers to purchase, and thus, an offset market emerges. We develop an equilibrium model to analyse the offset markets and apply the model to the Finnish economy and three selected boreal habitats. We examine how the market depends on trading ratios, the presence of an intermediary and the realization of risks associated with uncertainty. An intermediary can facilitate the market participants meeting each other with minimal transaction costs and safeguard against risks. The results show that the size of the offset markets could potentially be quite considerable and providing offsets could be a profitable business for landowners in Finland. The outcome of the restoration investment and a possible time delay between biodiversity losses and gains impact the trading ratios and thus, have a major impact on the market equilibrium. An intermediary may significantly decrease the costs of compensation for developers, provided that it can provide mature offsets when needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the bioeconomy has emerged as a key policy idea in liberal western states. This paper analyses the bioeconomy as a state strategy. By building on theoretical strands by Poulantzas, Moore, and Castán Broto, the paper argues that the bioeconomy has to be understood simultaneously as an accumulation strategy within the capitalist world‐ecology and as a transformative agenda through which tensions in the state space can be governed. The politics of bioeconomy do not concern its outright endorsement or rejection but the ways its contradictions are interpreted and articulated. The empirical part of the paper scrutinises the bioeconomy strategy adopted in Finland. Our main concern is that the bioeconomy strategy has been appropriated by the traditional forest industries in such a way that fails to address the problem of uneven development and ignores the potential of the bioeconomy as part of a transformative agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the World State of Quality (WSQ) project conducted by the American Society for Quality (ASQ) which compared and ranked European Union Countries based on their quality performance. Topics discussed include the multiscale framework for evaluating the performance of the countries, quality considerations for the project like micro, meso and macroquality and details on the results on the project where Finland, Austria and Sweden were the top scorers.

In this article, we investigate the redistributive outcomes of the Finnish pension system. We hypothesize that a pension system does not straightforwardly diminish, maintain, or increase income differences after retirement, but it can have different outcomes for different groups. Our focus is on differences in changes in income between groups that vary in their timing and type of retirement. We make use of longitudinal register-based data from the Finnish Centre for Pensions and analyze income and retirement trajectories of Finnish employees born in 1948 from the age of 57 to 66 (N = 44,449). Our aim is to find out in what way trajectories of income from earnings and pensions are related to different types of retirement trajectories, while controlling for gender, sector of employment, and length of working life. Eight distinct retirement trajectories are identified using sequence analysis. The results of our multilevel regression models indicate that the pension system sustains inequalities related to gender and employment sector. Early old-age retirement and part-time retirement are associated with higher earnings and more generous pension entitlements, indicating cumulative advantage. Lower earnings are associated with higher risk of early exit through unemployment and disability pensions, while the pension system guarantees a minimum income level in retirement, resulting in status leveling. Those who retire later are relatively well off in work, but worse off in retirement, suggesting a status-leveling outcome. By disentangling these outcomes of the pension system, it is possible to learn social policy lessons for other national institutional contexts as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Finnish Company Reorganization Act (FCRA) came into force on February 8, 1993. According to this legislation, a reorganization program may be undertaken in order to rehabilitate a distressed debtor's viable business, to ensure its continued viability, and to facilitate debt arrangements. This study concentrates on fourteen Finnish entrepreneurs who were accepted into the reorganization program between 2008 and 2010. The focus here is on the entrepreneurs' thoughts about their own behavior and their own character, and how these were connected to their economic decline, as well as their perceptions of their own strengths as entrepreneurs. The results indicate that these entrepreneurs' strengths and weaknesses can be divided into different categories concerning working habits and character. The reasons for the weaknesses were connected to external factors such as lack of funding, high expenses, and a recession. Other reasons included problems with the entrepreneurs' own behavior and personality. The insights into these Finnish entrepreneurs' difficulties could help new entrepreneurs in the beginning of their careers. Additionally, the results could be used in courses on entrepreneurship, for example, in relation to helping budding entrepreneurs to understand their potential weaknesses and how to avoid the risks inherent in self-management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies on ageing consumers have mainly focused on chronological age and generational values or studied ageing and consumption with cross-sectional data. Few quantitative studies exist that examine the effect of age together with life course on consumption using longitudinal data. To bridge this gap, the article examines ageing and attitudes towards consumption in Finland, focusing particularly on late middle-agers (46-60 year-olds) in comparison with young adults (18-30 year-olds) between 1999 and 2014. The article explores three consumption patterns based on attitudinal statements: ecological, economical and self-indulgent consumption. Through analysis of a nationally representative survey study in Finland (N = 8,543), the article reveals that in all years under examination, late middle-agers reported more ecological attitudes towards consumption than young adults. In 1999 and 2004, the attitudes of late middle-agers appeared more economical, but age-related differences in economical attitudes disappeared between 2009 and 2014. In each year, late middle-agers reported less self-indulgent attitudes than young adults, and these age-related differences did not remarkably change between 1999 and 2014. The results indicate that in 1999 and 2004, ecological and economical attitudes towards consumption were best predicted by age at the year of the study. In later years, ecological attitudes were more closely determined by life course stage, that is household type and other socio-demographic determinants. Regarding economical attitudes, generational or cohort effects were pronounced among late middle-agers in 1999. In contrast, the significance of age remained throughout the years for self-indulgent attitudes, indicating the absence of generational or cohort effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finland is the only country in the world where all ports freeze over during a typical winter. Over the century 1878–1978, Finland developed a winter-seafaring system that broke the winter isolation and eliminated seasonal variation in shipping. By using diverse archival sources, we deconstruct the dominant narrative of Finnish winter seafaring through which national as well as technological development is often presented as natural, inevitable and straightforward. We reinterpret the Finnish winter navigation system as a tangible, historical experience and show that technological solutions in this domain cannot be understood outside the context of a decades-long process of nation-building. Finally, we argue that winter navigation became a central imaginary for Finland as a western, industrial and modern nation. As such, the Finnish winter-seafaring system presents a case of technological nationalism in which a small, peripheral country sought to integrate itself into a modern international order. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Digitalisation is shaping almost every sector of the economy, enabling new ways of doing things, not merely digitising old, often manual, processes. Numerous new digital payment applications have emerged in retail payment markets, but the underlying payment infrastructures have remained almost unchanged. However, it is expected that technological advances combined with increasing competition enhanced by regulatory changes will shape retail payment markets in the coming years. With this evolving new environment will come new requirements, most notably for the authorities responsible for safeguarding the security, reliability and efficiency of payments. To analyse this challenge, this paper first reviews the theoretical framework that can be applied in examining the development of retail payment markets. Based on this, it outlines possible policy actions for the authorities. Secondly, it assesses the roles of authorities in practice, focusing on their position as catalyst for development in the European and national payment landscapes. Finally, it draws policy conclusions, emphasising the importance of multi-stakeholder cooperation bodies involving both payment service users and providers as well as relevant authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to elaborate on Forester's notion of the planner as a "deliberative practitioner", aiming to add sensitivity to the institutional conditions of planning, focusing especially on Finland. In terms of trust, the concept of deliberative practitioner mostly focuses on interpersonal trust as a planner's resource in mediating particular interests. Thereby, when applied to the Finnish context, institutional trust may be undermined as a key resource for the Finnish planner's jurisdiction, justifying his/her proactive role and authority in bringing broader concerns to the planning agenda. This undermining prevents the acknowledgement of important institutional resources that the Finnish planner has in coping with the tensions between communicative ideals and neoliberal realities. A more context-sensitive and institutionally responsive theory of communicative planning is needed to help the planning professionals and other stakeholders conceive the deliberative ideals as supportive for the planners' institutionally strong agency. Hence, the notion of the "deliberative bureaucrat". The article seeks to develop an outline for such a theory by drawing upon studies of legal culture, the sociology of professions, deliberative democracy theory and the concept of trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The goal of the Finnish experiment that started this year is to try to get some evidence on how a new social policy instrument mimicking a basic income would work and what kind of behavioural consequences it would have. At this point, there are many strong arguments being made both in favour of and opposed to basic income. Unfortunately, there are not enough facts yet. The Finnish experiment hopes to change that. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the European Union, smart specialization is an important concept in regional policy. Its primary aim is to achieve inclusive and sustainable economic growth. There is a lack of convenient region specific measures to operationalize smart specialization startegies (S3). The purpose of the paper is to find "indices of smart specialization" on a regional level. We propose indices that are based on (1) the rate of industrial diversification, (2) revealed comparative advantage and (3) regions' overall relative specialization. In the empirical part, we analyze smart specialization in Finland using structural data provided by Statistics Finland for seventy sub-regions (LAU1) and 24 sub-industries in manufacturing. These industries are the most important for exports, productivity, and regional economic performance for a small country. The following indices are used in empirical evaluations: Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) for regional diversity, Balassa- Hoover Index (BHI) for revealed comparative advantage, and Region's Relative Specialization Index (RRSI) for aggregate regional specialization differences. The concept of smart specialization is related to these measures. Index analyses reveal that many growing sub-regions have similar comparative advantages. This means inter-regional synergy, and it enables opportunities for strategic cooperation between regions. To develop smart specialization strategies for Europe's regions, we need these kinds of empirical knowledge-based management tools and planning approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an overview of the legal regulation involved in building – and dismantling – the Nordic welfare state in Finland. Within this context this article details how legislative reforms have been reflected in the development of Northern Finland, as well as the effects on the Sami population and a comparison between Nordic countries. The Nordic welfare state was implemented in Finland primarily through parliamentary legislation. Human and fundamental rights played no role in the process of building the welfare state. The beginning of the 1990s marked the end of what had been massive build-up of the public sector. Over the last 20 years or so we have seen cutbacks in municipal services such as schools, healthcare centres, and social services. The future of municipal government in Finland looks very different than it did when the welfare state was being created. We may well be facing a bleak future with weaker municipalities, fewer public services, less state funding for municipalities, less manoeuvring space in relation to the state, and more privatisations. Wise structural reforms might be the way ahead if we want to create functional regional and local governance and thus to guarantee the future of the Nordic welfare state in Finland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central locations of metropolitan areas have some specific attributes, leading to an accumulation of large knowledge exchanges and extensive knowledge externalities, which encourage the concentration of various economic activities, especially knowledge-based industries (KBI). Other agglomeration economies found in metropolitan areas – such as telecommunications and transport infrastructures connected to global productive circuits and complementary labour markets – are key factors for KBI employment growth. This paper explores the Helsinki Metropolitan Area’s (HMA) spatial clustering of KBI at the sub-district level, and the role played by agglomeration economies (both specialization and diversity economies) in fostering this process. The results reveal that KBI employment shows patterns of concentration in the core and adjacent areas. The specialization and diversity economies found in the metropolitan core and the specialization economies found in others areas lead to KBI spatial clustering in the HMA. Public policies regarding the promotion of science parks have also played a decisive role. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The cadastral systems used in each country and region have developed through the centuries to their current form. We cannot assume that the current situation will remain the same from this point to the future. There are signs in recent studies and development projects throughout the world that those cadastral systems which are traditionally seen as well-functioning also need to be renewed as society changes at a rapid pace. This study is set up to analyze the future needs of a cadastral system and registers related to it in Finland. The objective of the study is to reveal future themes affecting the operational environment of the cadastral system by using research methods provided by futurology. The method used in this study is called environmental scanning and it consists of three phases: collecting events, recognizing phenomena and combining the phenomena as themes. The study analyses 352 literature sources and reveals 14 different future themes in the operational environment of the cadastral system, which are economic pressure, demographic changes, development of technology, transparent society, safety, environmental values, globalization, digitalization, know-how, quality, political change, soft values, public-private partnership and crowd sourcing. The future themes, their possible relations between each other and their significance for the cadastral system are analyzed by using the concepts of megatrends, trends, wild cards, driving forces and weak signals and reflecting the results to research made in the field of land management internationally. The results can be used when renewing a cadastral system, in order to consider possible future themes that may affect the system. Detecting and recognizing the future themes provides an opportunity to react and change the course of action in order to adapt to the future. The results are not only usable in the Finnish context, but can also be applied in other countries’ development of their cadastre and as part of environmental scanning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information gaps and asymmetries are common in the housing market and this is frequently the case with the risks of natural processes, especially in coastal areas where the amenity dimension may dominate the risk aspect. Flood risk disclosure through maps is a policy instrument aimed at addressing this situation. We assess its effectiveness by identifying whether such maps induce a price differential for single family coastal dwellings in three Finnish cities, and by estimating the discount per square meter for various flooding probabilities (return times). The estimations indicate a significant price drop after the information disclosure for properties located in flood-prone areas as indicated by the maps. In the case of sea flooding information in Helsinki, the price effect is sensitive to the communicated probability of flooding. Overall, the discussed policy instrument appears to have functioned as intended, correcting information gaps and asymmetries related to flood risk. The identified effect is spatially selective; it caused a short-term localized shock in market prices in conjunction with some reorientation of demand from risky coastal properties towards ones that represent a similar level of coastal amenity, but are less risky in terms of flooding. This hints at the potential for incorporating the shocks associated with flood events or risk information into broader-scoped urban modelling and simulation. Similarly, the reasonable accuracy with which the housing market processes the additional information shows a potential for wider use of the disclosure of non-obvious risks in real estate markets. In the case of adapting to climate change risks, additional uncertainties may make the disclosure instrument less effective, if used as a single tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay charts the history, nature and uses of Finnish historical household budget data. Three perspectives are discussed: that of the changing interests of the state in producing knowledge on households; that of the multiple interests of various societal actors in shaping household behaviour through budgeting, including the households themselves; and that of reanalysis for modern economic history. In the last instance, the main focus is on microeconometric perspectives. In the process, an overview of the sources available will be presented. To conclude, historically generated bias and future research potential of the sources are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the economic burden of fire-related injury from two perspectives: post-injury social security compensations and also productivity losses due to the lost productive time from a societal perspective induced by the injury. Design and methods: A cohort of 1503 inpatients who sustained firerelated injury during the period 2001-2005 was retrospectively followed up for 5-10 years until the end of 2010, using linkages between several administrative registers. The study process was started in 2015 and finalized on March 2016. Results: Annual productivity loss was on average EUR 5.72 million, giving a total for the five-year study period of EUR 28.6 million, with a mean value of EUR 19,070 per person. Mean/median disability time for those who received benefits was 572/63 days, ranging from 3 days to 36.5 years. Total average cost of benefits to the injured annually during the study period was EUR 1.03 million. This equates to EUR 3430 per patient for the whole cohort or EUR 14,860 for those who received benefits. Conclusions: The burden of fire-related injuries in terms of payment transfers and lost productivity due to periods of disability as indirect costs is high; in a population of 5.4 million, the annual loss exceeded EUR 5.7 million. The results could be used in planning preventive measures and therefore yield savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]