The paper analyses the sustainability of fiscal policy in the four largest countries of the EMU area and Finland with the aim of assessing whether current fiscal policies are compatible with the Stability and Growth Pact in the medium term.The sensitivity of the deficit and debt ratios to...

This paper examines the sources of output shocks in Finland as compared to other EU countries. The data consists of output fluctuations in main industries in nine current EU countries for the period 1978–1993. The sources of output shock are considered to consist of country-specific factors,...

This paper extends Gertler’s (1999) tractable overlapping generations model with life-cycle features by allowing for distortionary taxation, demographic transition and stochastic variation in demographic structure. The model is then used to study demographic change in the small open economy of...

The paper examines the role of bank relationships in business closures during the Finnish economic crisis of the early 1990s. We utilise a unique panel data set of 474 small and medium-sized firms, for which we have standard accounting information and for which we can in addition identify...

Keeping public finances on a sustainable foundation while the population ages is clearly a problem in Finland, as in many other western countries. The shrinking of the working-age population, ageing of the labour force, and growth in the number of very old persons form a difficult combination...