Politics in coalition formation of local governments

We analyze empirically the coalition formation of local governments using a novel reduced form econometric procedure that allows for multi-partner mergers. Using Finnish municipal merger data where mergers were decided independently at the local level, we find that merger decisions are largely in line with voter preferences. Most importantly, mergers are clearly less likely when the distance of the median voter to the coalition centre is large. However, councillors seem also to prefer mergers where post-merger political competition is lower which indicates a concern for re-election. Interestingly, municipalities do not seem to be seeking economies of scale through merging. This is possibly due to existing cooperation in service production which we find to be a strong predictor of merging

Local representation and strategic voting: evidence from electoral boundary reforms

We use Finnish local election voting data to analyze whether voters value local representation and act strategically to guarantee it. To identify such preferences and behavior, we exploit municipal mergers as natural experiments, which increase the number of candidates and parties available to voters and intensify political competition. Using difference-in-differences strategy, we find that voters in merged municipalities start to concentrate their votes to local candidates despite the larger choice set, whereas the vote distributions in the municipalities that did not merge remain the same. Moreover, the concentration effect is clearly larger in municipalities that are less likely to gain local representation in the post-merger councils. We also find that the effect increases both as the geographical distance and income heterogeneity between merging municipalities increases. We interpret these results as evidence of both preferences for local representation and strategic voting

Beating unsustainability with eating: four alternative food-consumption scenarios

Peer reviewe

Futures of a Complex World : Proceedings of the Conference “Futures of a Complex World”, 12–13 June 2017, Turku, Finland

”Futures of a Complex World” conference 2017 was a success by all standards. We got record amount of participants - 330 experts from 29 countries - with fascinating array of topics from future of agriculture to new modeling tools. This publication, based on papers presented in the conference, is a token of the fascinating variety of approaches we can adopt while penetrating the future with the tools of our research. As such, it also represents in a splendid way the complexity of our world, embedded with grand challenges as well as fascinating new developments. Complexity science itself proves us that we need particularly two capacities to thrive in the ever more complex world: on the one hand we need to build more resilience into our systems, on the other, we should create new capacities to transform, if necessary. Both aspects are well represented in the articles of this publications

Avoiding Macro Mistakes : Analysis of Micro-Homes in Finland Today

Peer reviewe

Tilausten valmistusjärjestyksen priorisointi ja käsittelyn kehittäminen

Opinnäytetyössä käsiteltiin Ruukki Metals Oy:n Seinäjoen teräspalvelukeskuksen tuotesuunnittelun työjonon aikataulutuksen kehittämistä. Opinnäytetyön tavoitteena oli sujuvoittaa työvaiheen toimintaa. Työn lähtökohtana oli muodostaa aikataulutusmalli, jolla kohdeyrityksen valmistustehokkuus saataisiin vastaamaan myös pitkien työjonojen vaatimuksia. Pitkillä työjonoilla valmistusjärjestys korostuu ja tilausten täytyy olla tuotantoketjulle kaikkein tehokkaimmassa järjestyksessä. Kiiretilanteet saatiin poistettua tilausten valmistusjärjestyksen uudistamisen myötä. Tässä opinnäytetyössä valmistettiin kattava ja monipuolinen laskentakaava, jolla pystyttiin ajoittamaan tilaukset yksilöllisesti työvaiheisiin kuluvan ajan ja niiden lukumäärän perusteella. Työssä seurattiin myös tilaustietojen kulkemia vaiheita tuotannonohjausjärjestelmässä. Tavoitteena oli selvittää kohdeyrityksen ohjausjärjestelmien nykytilat ja luoda jatkokehitystarpeet. Tilaustietojen siirtymistä kartoitettiin testitilauksella, mahdollisia tiedonsiirto-ongelmia selvitettiin kyselylomakkein Ruukin työntekijöiltä. Valmistusohjeiden todelliset liikkeet poikkesivat oletetuista ja niistä löytyi kehitettäviä kohteita. Testitilauksen ja kyselyiden tuloksia käsiteltiin työntekijöille järjestetyissä palavereissa ja luotiin kehitysideat järjestelmän toiminnan tehostamiseksi.This thesis is about the schedule planning at Rautaruukki Corporation in Seinäjoki Finland. The main target was to plan and produce a new priority rule to the product planners and this way to increase the production chain effectiveness. The priority rule had to be the programmable production control system which makes the production run without a rush. The rules were planned to calculate the work phases and times for each order separately. The new priority rule was proved to be practical and it worked in all cases. The thesis also involved finding the production control systems functions. The control systems ability to share and provide information had impaired over the years. The thesis target was to produce the analysis of the production control systems functions. The information transmissions of the production control systems were tested by a test order. The common information about the control systems usage, were collected using the questionnaires from the workstation. The results of the analysis were documented and gathered to improve the information system of the company