The euro crisis has rekindled questions about the advantages and disadvantages of membership in the European Monetary Union. In the Northern periphery of the EU, the different monetary regime choices of Finland and Sweden have created a particularly interesting testing ground for the benefits of...

In this paper we analyse to what extent the Nordic economies are vulnerable to external shocks. Specifically, we assess the conventional wisdom that the Nordic countries are small open economies that are significantly engaged in international trade, specialised in only few specific industries...

We summarize and compare previous studies considering the impact of R&D subsidies on firm-level labor productivity. These studies conclude quite consistently that the subsidies provided by Tekes do not have statistically significant impact on its client firms’ labor productivity. These studies...

A withdrawal of a member state from the EMU due to market pressure has been a rather popular topic in the public debate in recent years. However, the effects of a withdrawal have been analysed quantitatively surprisingly little. Discussions have been concentrated on the crisis countries, but as...

In this report, we analyze the Finnish R&D tax incentive scheme of the years 2013 and 2014. Under the scheme, firms were eligible for double corporate tax deduction incentive on labor expenses incurred for undertaking R&D activities. Our report consists of a literature review, an empirical...

We analyse how alternative reforms of the student financial aid would influence average study duration, government expenditures, and tax revenues. We also consider the reform that has been proposed by the current government (in 2016) which consists of lowering the monthly student grant and...

In this report, we follow up the situation of individuals having re-entered the labour market with the help of a so-called job bank. The follow-up period extends over the next two years after their job-bank-mediated transition into the open labour market. We present two different sets of results...

In this report, we re-assess the role of so-called job banks as mediators into the open labour market but also as employers of unemployed job-seekers. The focus is primarily on the unemployed who became job bank clients during 2013. We follow up the labour market situation of these individuals...

This paper examines the effect of minimum wage changes on local aggregate inflation and consumption growth. The paper utilizes variation in state-level minimum wages across locations and finds that minimum wage increases have a relatively modest effect on both city-level inflation and spending...