This paper deals with optimal payment systems. The issue boils down to how large are the costs of different payment media, which can be interpreted as a question of the efficiency of the means of payment. However, there are other qualifications related to the choice of payment media. Here, at...

This paper examines the role of cash usage in the development of payment media. For that purpose, the basic trends of change in payment media are scrutinized using European data. Although cash still clearly dominates in small retail payments, there has been a definite shift towards electronic...

The high volatility of both housing investment and housing prices has raised questions about the determinants of housing investment in Finland. In this paper we estimate investment equations for the period 1972 -1987. The exceptional durability of houses makes housing investment sensitive to...

This paper looks at the efficiency of asset markets and pricing rules with regard to house and stock markets in Finland. House and stock prices are found to have unit roots, which is a necessary condition for efficient markets. However, asset prices are not pure random walks, but instead unit...