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Timo Rahkonen

Policy Brief: Eri toimijoiden positiot aktiivimallin valiokuntakäsittelyssä

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Analyysi eri intressiryhmien edustamista tavoitteista ja kannoista aktiivimallina tunnettua hallituksen esitystä 124/2017 vp koskien. Edustettuja intressejä tutkitaan osana valiokuntakäsittelyä.

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PAOLO FORNARO

Regional economic disparities in Finland

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In this note, I study the Finnish regional dispersion of economic indicators such as the GDP per capita, labour productivity, the employment rate and the compensation of employees. Moreover, I examine the regional-level correlation between these variables. The results are then compared with what has been found for the German and Italian economies.

Finnish regional economies display substantial variation, but their GDP per capita, productivity and employment rate have converged. However, the compensation of employees has diverged. Compared to Germany and Italy, the Finnish economy has a lower regional dispersion, with a similar convergence process as in Germany. The correlation between regional productivity and the employment rate is lower than what is found in Italy and Germany, and the same holds for productivity and wages.

The picture gathered from this analysis is mixed. Convergence of economic conditions is certainly positive, but the divergence of the compensation of employees can be problematic for the long-term sustainability of the Finnish regional markets. If well-paid jobs concentrate in richer regions, there will be higher incentives for young and well-educated workers to move away from peripheral (in economic terms) areas, which would be at risk of stagnation.

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Paolo Fornaro

Economic Dynamics and Changes in Values and Attitudes among Finnish Regions: A Descriptive Analysis

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Finland is characterized by a substantial heterogeneity across its regions. Key economic indicators, such as the GDP per capita and the unemployment rate, vary widely for different areas, with Uusimaa, the region where Helsinki is located, being significantly richer than regions such as Kainuu and Savo. This heterogeneity, however, has not been stable over time. We find that many important indicators, namely the GDP per capita, the unemployment rate and real wages and salaries per employee, have been converging across regions over the years going from 2000 to 2014. Moreover, we examine regional values and attitudes, using surveys from the Finnish Business and Policy Forum, and find that there has been a strong regional convergence in terms of trust in political parties and in the EU. In particular, we find that the trust in these institutions has increased more in regions where there was a more negative attitude toward parties and the EU during the initial years of our analysis. On the other hand, we do not find a significant convergence with respect to the attitude towards immigration.

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Anu Kantola, Hanna Kuusela

Wealth Elite Moralities: Wealthy Entrepreneurs’ Moral Boundaries

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This article examines the moral boundary work of wealthy Finnish entrepreneurs belonging to the country’s top 0.1 per cent of earners. Through 28 semi-structured interviews, we show how these members of the wealth elite construct moral boundaries to legitimise their growing distance from other income groups in a Nordic welfare society. The super-rich entrepreneurs construct self-identities based on hard work, persistence and normality, draw moral boundaries between lazy and hard-working people and create moral distance between themselves and wage earners, the unemployed and public-sector workers. At the same time, these wealthy elite entrepreneurs challenge the moralities of Nordic welfare society. We thus posit that moral boundaries and boundary work should be explored as legitimising discourses embedded in the relations of economic and political power.