We evaluate direct wage subsidy programs to Finnish SMEs utilising as the unit of interest the firm and its characteristics. In estimating Average Treatment effects on the Treated firms (ATT) we apply recent techniques of propensity score matching algorithms developed by Becker and Ichino (2002)...

This study analyses the labour market developments of selected 22 European countries during the last ten years. The developments in employment and unemployment as well as the most essential distributive effects are presented. The labour market policy reforms of Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland,...

This paper analyzes the effects of job displacement on fertility using Finnish longitudinal employer-employee data (FLEED) matched to birth records. We distinguish between male and female job losses. We focus on couples where one spouse has lost his/her job due to a plant closure or mass layoff...

We employ the original Card and Krueger (1994) and Neumark and Wascher (2000) data together with the changes-in-changes (CIC) estimator to re-examine the evidence of the effect of minimum wages on employment. Our study reconciles the controversial positive average employment effect reported by...

The study reconsiders the effects of tax progression in imperfectly competitive labour markets. Allowing for the individual supply of working hours, we show that the results derived in the standard model of decentralised wage bargaining do not hold if the wage setting is centralised or highly...

The literature evaluating active labour market programmes concentrates on the subsequent labour market performance of the unemployed work force that has undergone training or has spent a certain period in a subsidised job. The effects of programmes on firms have rarely been evaluated. Here we...

The present paper examines whether subsidised jobs have contributed to the employment in subsidised firms or merely substituted for non-subsidised ones. The data set is an unbalanced panel of some 31,000 firms that are followed annually between 1995 and 2002. The analysis is based on...

The present study analyses migration patterns in Finland to test if microeconomic evidence for the Harris-Todaro model can be found. The Harris-Todaro hypothesis states that rural-urban migration stems from regional differences in the wage level and the chances of finding work. To test the...

This survey presents findings from recent empirical studies on economic impacts of immigration with particular emphasis on European and Nordic countries. The survey consists of three parts. First, we look at the extent of immigration as an economic phenomenon in various host countries. The...

This paper analyses regional labour market adjustment in the Finnish provinces during 1976-2000. It investigates the inter-relations of employment, unemployment, labour force participation and migration to see how a change in region-specific and total labour demand is adjusted. The analysis...