This paper explores the sources underlying the marked increase in the dispersion of private-sector wages in Finland since the mid-90s by use of a recently proposed method to decompose changes along the whole wage distribution over a period of time into several factors contributing to those...

The paper compares the gender wage differentials of two occupation groups - innovation and non-innovation workers - separately for manufacturing and services using Finnish private-sector data. We apply a decomposition method based on unconditional quantile regression techniques to identify key...

This paper compares the effects of intangible capital on wage formation among white-collar manufacturing workers using comparative data from three European countries: the Czech Republic, Finland and Norway. The analysis is undertaken in two steps. First, we explore the wage differentials and the...

Labour-market polarization is characterized by increased employment in occupations at the top but also at the bottom of the skills and wage distributions, followed by a relative decline in 'middling' occupations. This paper documents a polarization trend also in the Nordic labour markets and...

The availability of new internationally-harmonized innovation survey data collected from OECD countries has created some interesting opportunities for studying the following two key areas: (1) the determinants of innovation behavior at firm level, and (2) innovation as an important factor...

This overview report on flexibility and competitiveness for Finland starts with an outline of the performance and consequent restructuring of the Finnish economy over the past two decades. It then continues with a presentation and discussion of Finnish technology policy and the ICT miracle of...

This paper provides a brief overview of the Finnish wage bargaining system and its evolution over the past decades into its current mode by drawing on existing documents, reports and analyses. The emphasis is on the changes having occurred in the system’s overall structure as well as in its...

This study explores the evolution of private returns to education in Finland by using a simple Mincer earnings equation framework and cross-sections of the Finnish Labour Force Survey compiled by Statistics Finland. Attempts are also made to examine the sensitivity of educational returns to the...

The economic turbulence that has characterised the Finnish economy over the past decade or so has had considerable impact on employment trends and thus on the mobility of individuals between jobs as well as between employment and non-employment. Apart from a marked shift in employment from...

We study how upgrading the skills of the personnel affects a firm’s performance. Two different strategies are examined: 1) providing formal training and 2) strategic recruitment and separation policy. The use of register-based longitudinal employeremployee data supplemented with a survey on...