The provision of transport infrastructure outside the most populated regions in Finland has been under budgetary pressure for more than decade. Many of these less populated areas suffer a decline of the population, which adds to the stress on these regional economies. The prolonged reduction in...

The relationship between firm size and age relative to technical change and efficiency is examined in a highly innovative and dynamic sector, the Finnish ICT equipment manufacturing industry. A stochastic frontier model is applied to an unbalanced firm level panel over the period 1990?2003. The...

This paper compares neural networks and linear regression models in interest rate forecasting using US term structure data. The expectations hypothesis gets some extra support from the neural network model as compared to the regression model. A neural network with the whole yield curve spectre...

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...

In this study the efficiency of Finnish upper secondary schools is evaluated with stochastic frontier analysis. Different stochastic frontier models for panel data are used to estimate education production functions. The results in matriculation examination are explained with comprehensive...

A stochastic frontier model is applied to firm level panel data from the Finnish ICT manufacturing sector to explore the role of R&D and technological progress in the outstanding productivity growth Finland demonstrated in the latter half of the 1990?s. The sample is representative of over 90 %...

This paper investigates the effects of business subsidies on the employment of firms in Finland, and explores possible regional differences in the effects. Employment of some 26,000 firms is followed annually between 1995-1998. We find that labour subsidies increase the firms' own employment...

This report discusses the economic implications of the regulatory organisation of the European Emission Trade System (EU ETS) in the member states, and more in particular the consequences of differences between national regulations. It is part of a larger study regarding juridical aspects of the...