A key input to inventive activity is human capital. Hence it is important to understand the monetary incentives of inventors. We estimate the effect of patented inventions on individual earnings by linking data on U.S. patents and their inventors to Finnish employer-employee data. Returns are...

There is plenty of evidence for market failures that motivate government intervention for innovation in general and research and development (R&D) in particular. R&D subsidies are a policy tool of major importance - both in theory and practice. The empirical evidence for the effectiveness of R&D...

This article first reviews the economic rationales for innovation policy. It then describes the Finnish innovation policy and policy making environment. The Finnish policy is evaluated from the point of view of fostering entrepreneurship. R&D subsidies, the main tool of Finnish innovation...

We use elections data in which a large number of ties in vote counts between candidates are resolved via a lottery to study the personal incumbency advantage. We benchmark non-experimental regression discontinuity design (RDD) estimates against the estimate produced by this experiment that takes...

In this article we review recent evidence showing how market forces and policies shape the rate and direction of innovation, with various implications for inequality. First, we characterize several market mechanisms whereby higher rates of innovation lead to higher inequality. Second, we...

We construct a model of innovation incorporating R&D externalities, R&D participation, financial market imperfections, and application and allocation of R&D subsidies, estimate it using Finnish R&D project level data and conduct a welfare analysis. The intensive, not the extensive R&D margin is...

In this paper we study a horizontally differentiated market for financial in-termediation and develop a simple explanation for concentration in the financial intermediation industry. We show that under asymmetric information, if the demand for funds is not perfectly elastic, the heterogeneity of...

In many industries, including telecommunications, a government decision on a standard is needed for the society to reap the benefits from the diffusion of new goods. Delays induced by regulatory bodies either in standard choice or its implementation can be extremely costly. I study...

Mobile phones are increasingly used as a gateway to the Internet. The take-up of mobile phone-enabled Internet services was, however, initially slower than expected, at least in Europe. We estimate non-parametrically the price elasticities of demand for first-generation wireless services using...

This paper provides evidence that capital market imperfections hold back innovation and growth, and that public policy can complement capital markets. We deliver the evidence by studying the effects of government funding on the behavior of SMEs in Finland. By adapting the methodology recently...