How to Cope with Declining Small Urban Centres? - The Finnish Regional Centre Programme in perspective

The severe depression which Finland suffered in the early 1990´s as well as the subsequent economic developments saw Finland faced not only with high unemployment and rising income disparities but also with deepening regional imbalance. As a handful of larger cities grew, many others either coped or declined altogether. In 2000 the Finnish government launched the Regional Centre Programme (RCP). Through the development of a regional network of different sized growth centres based on their particular strengths, expertise and specialization, the original purpose of the programme was not only to find new sources of economic growth but to find ways of spreading growth more evenly across regions without hindering the overall development. The aim of this paper is to assess the development trail which led to the emergence of the RCP as well as to study RCP´s role in assisting the development of small urban centres during its first three years of existence. Keywords: Regional development, Regional Centre Policy, Finland

Incentive pay and gender gaps in the Nordic countries

This paper explores the effect of incentive pay on gender pay gaps in Finland, Norway and Sweden among professionals and managers within MNCs. Mercer 2009 Total Remuneration Survey data is utilised. Uniform job ladder, occupation, industry and wage definitions enable consistent cross-country comparisons. In addition to the between-country variation, the within-country variation of gender gap with respect to incentive pay is analysed. The results indicate that gender pay gaps differ among the Nordics and that occupation and industry controls have dissimilar effects across countries. Irrespective of wage element, Finland and Norway are characterised by higher gender gaps than Sweden. Incentives tend to accentuate gender pay gaps. In intention to alleviate the absence of job performance data, this study utilises a rudimentary, promotion-based measure for job performance. In Finland it does affect the gender gap. However, irrespective of gender, high-performers are penalised in Sweden but not in Finland or Norway. The Finnish data also allows the identification of low-performers. Low job performance is rewarded in Finland. Nonetheless, the job performance findings should be interpreted with cautions.Wage differential; incentive pay; job ladder; gender; job performance

What Makes University Students Happy?

Happiness studies are a growing research area in economics. In this study we focus on the determinants of subjective well-being of a particular sub-population, university students. Different happiness determinants are considered and tested empirically using survey data from Finland. An ordered probit model is applied. We compare the results with those of a similar study conducted among university students in Australia. The findings reveal that the most important influences on students' levels of satisfaction are social relationships, resources and the educational environment, personal goal achieving and extracurricular activities.

SELFMANAGEMENT AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

The research focuses on how generations can be helped to learn to manage their own intelligence, especially that form of intelligence that can act as a body resource on the line of self development, namely emotional intelligence. The study shows the link between emotional intelligence and self-esteem, relating them to other features of personality traits. We worked on 70 subjects aged between 20 and 25 years old, using Rosenberg, Eysenck, Goleman questionnaires and a temperament test. The results show that the subjects with a high emotional intelligence have a high level of empathy and self appreciation terms of personality traits closer to their real image and typologies that are extroverted.self-management, emotional intelligence, resource, self-esteem, self knowledge.

Combining liquidity usage and interest rates on overnight loans: an oversight indicator

This study utilises payment system data to analyse market participants’ liquidity usage and to trace interest rates paid on overnight loans. Our aim is to examine how liquidity usage has changed during the years 2006–2/2011 and to combine this information with data on overnight lending rates between market participants. It turns out that the Furfine algorithm used in the analysis produces overnight interest rates that correlate very closely with the EONIA curve. Based on Finnish payment system data, we identify four separate time periods: normal, start of turmoil, acute crisis and stabilizing period. The results show that, during the acute crisis period, TARGET2 participants holding an account with the Bank of Finland paid, on average, lower overnight interest rates than other banks in the euro area. However, the results reveal there has been some lack of confidence between Finnish participants since the onset of the financial crisis. A new indicator – the Grid – which we present here shows this very clearly. We suggest that this new indicator could be a highly useful tool for overseers in supporting financial stability analysis.liquidity; interest rates; overnight loans; payment systems; indicators

Male Organ and Economic Growth : Does Size Matter?

This paper explores the link between economic development and penile length between 1960 and 1985. It estimates an augmented Solow model utilizing the Mankiw-Romer-Weil 121 country dataset. The size of male organ is found to have an inverse U-shaped relationship with the level of GDP in 1985. It can alone explain over 15% of the variation in GDP. The GDP maximizing size is around 13.5 centimetres, and a collapse in economic development is identified as the size of male organ exceeds 16 centimetres. Economic growth between 1960 and 1985 is negatively associated with the size of male organ, and it alone explains 20% of the variation in GDP growth. With due reservations it is also found to be more important determinant of GDP growth than country's political regime type. Controlling for male organ slows convergence and mitigates the negative effect of population growth on economic development slightly. Although all evidence is suggestive at this stage, the `male organ hypothesis' put forward here is robust to exhaustive set of controls and rests on surprisingly strong correlations