In this paper we present a comparative analysis of Nordic countries’ financial systems and consider in particular the recent growth of Nordic venture capital industries. We document that the Nordic countries’ financial systems display several similarities that have characterized their...

In recent years, business angels have invested in a few hundred Finnish firms annually. The target firms are mainly young and small: 75% of them employ fewer than 10 workers and are less than 8 years old. These firms are most likely to be found in the ICT and professional service industries and...

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...

Not unlike elsewhere, the government in Finland has been keen to provide funding to Finnish firms, especially to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this paper we review, in the light of the economic rationales for public efforts to finance SMEs, all of the government institutions...

Because the exit stage may have several feedback effects on the earlier stages (i.e. fundraising and investing) in the venture capital process, the long-run development of the venture capital industry is dependent on the exit possibilities the financial system generates. In this study, we...