When Intentions Meet Realities: Typology of Contacts across the Finnish-Russian Border

When Intentions Meet Realities: Typology of Contacts across the Finnish-Russian Border Heikki Eskelinen, University of Joensuu, Finland Dmitri Zimine, St. Petersburg Centre for Russian Studies, Russia Cross-border cooperation can be defined as conscious joint activity pursued by local and regional governments with more or less strong support from civil society, and facilitated and constrained by central governments and international organisations. Since about 1990, this phenomenon has also been witnessed across the former Iron Curtain, simultaneously with various forms of cross-border economic transactions and informal contacts. Yet in most cases, cross-border regionalisation has remained rather weak, and it has not met the early ambitious targets of creating a new borderless Europe. Given the background outlined above, the present paper attempts to clarify the interplay of official cooperation and informal cross-border contacts: whether they have developed in accordance - or at least in touch - with each other. For this purpose, a typology of cross-border contacts is created by dividing them into formal v. informal and private profit-oriented (economic) v. public benefit-oriented (political) ones. The basic assertion of the paper is that the lack of regionalisation phenomena across divisive borders may result from that these different forms of cross-border interaction develop independently from each other. The empirical analysis focusses on one border town in the Russian North-West. It attempts to clarify in detail the mechanisms through which various forms of cross-border contacts have influenced developments in it, modifying the transition process at a local level. The observed dynamics of cross?border contacts leads to a conclusion that the four types of cross-border contacts have displayed very different trends in the 1990s, and they have failed to create joint dynamics because of the obstacles imposed by the existing institutional realities on both sides of the border. On this basis, it is asked whether the strengthened informal cross?border networks may well soon begin to exert pressure upon formal public and private institutions with the aim to further develop the formal framework facilitating cross?border contacts.

The Role of Small, Comprehensive Universities in Regional Economic Development: Experiences from Two Nordic cases

In the recent past, expectations concerning universities have emphasised their active role as driving forces in industrial and regional development. Obviously, this challenge is especially demanding in the universities which have primarily focussed on traditional academic teaching and research activities, and which are located in regions suffering from structural problems. The paper investigates the experience of three Nordic universities, Aarhus in Denmark, Joensuu in Finland, and Tromsö in Norway, which are comparable in several respects. The triple helix framework is used as the theoretical point of reference. In particular, the investigation attempts to clarify the factors which condition the transformation of a university from the academic unit producing qualified labour force for the welfare state towards a policy actor in initiating new economic activities. Drawing from the comparison of the three cases, the conclusions focus on the realisation of a university?s local and regional development potential.

Distant neighbours. Economic adjustment processes at the Finnish-Russian border

For decades, the closed East/West border was an effective barrier for cross-border interaction at a local and regional level. It was reflected, among other things, in production structures and settlement patterns in the border regions. Since around 1990, economic and other forms of cross-border linkages have been possible, and they have raised the issue about adjustment processes, that is, whether regional and local economic actors are able to utilise existing complementarities and create new ones, and how this will make itself felt in the roles of the border regions in the international division of labour. The paper investigates regional adjustment processes in the case of the Finnish-Russian border, which is characterised by one of the deepest socio-economic and cultural gaps in Europe. First, the reasons for the specialisation of the neighbouring regional economies under the period of the closed border are analysed. Against this background, the repercussions of the partial opening of the border are evaluated in relation to the other driving forces of their development trends in the 1990s. It is concluded that the regions on both sides have lagged behind their respective national averages, although border-related adjustment processes have had quite diverse economic impacts. In Finland, these impacts have remained relatively marginal in most border regions. In the Russian borderlands, some local and regional economies have undergone profound changes in their market orientation due to the proximity of the border; instead of being specialised producers for the Russian market, they are now locked in the international division of labour as economic peripheries.

Fine-grained Patterns of the Digital Divide: Differences of Broadband Access within Finland

Access to the Internet plays a central role in the development of an information society. However, because of the required telecommunications infrastructure is very expensive to build, and telecommunications services are also relatively expensive, there is no sufficient demand for a market-based provision of relevant telecommunication infrastructures in many areas. As a result, some citizens and organisations are left without an (up-to-date) access to the Internet. This gap between social groups with and without access to the Internet, which is also often linked with a lack of motivation to use it, is referred to as Digital Divide. Several governments have implemented programmes aimed at diminishing this Divide, by means of providing access to the Internet in regions where the market does not provide it, and by enhancing the citizens? ?information society? skills and motivation. There are a variety of technologies available for connecting to the Internet. The traditional narrowband means include modem and ISDN. For faster connections in terms of data transfer rate, various broadband technologies have been introduced. Actually, these broadband connections, which usually offer a fixed pricing scheme, are often seen as the embodiment of an information society. Lately, also mobile connections have become a feasible in creating an access to the Internet, as their speed has increased to the level of the traditional modem connection, and their data transfer prices have been reduced. The aim of this paper is to explore spatial patterns and differences in internet access in Finland. Availability of all possible technologies (traditional, broadband and mobile) are investigated in detail. The findings are compared with demographic characteristics of the relevant regions. Not surprisingly, the tentative results support the view that regions with higher population densities have a better access to the Internet. With regard to the debate on the Digital Divide, it is especially interesting to observe that variations in access to the Internet do not follow administrative borders, but are much more fine-grained. Clearly, this has implications for effective and righteous information society policies, and for an evaluation of the effectiveness of such policies. The paper in an outgrowth of the project ?Telecommunications Services and Networks and Territorial Cohesion? funded from the European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) programme (see www.espon.lu). Key words: internet access, digital divide, telecommunications infrastructure, spatial differences, ESPON

Broadband strategies in thin milieux: comparing nordic experiences

Broadband infrastructures with a high transmission capacity are seen as a key precondition for the development of an information society, and therefore, their supply and availability have become important issues in public policies. The paper analyses the policy strategies applied in Finland and Sweden for promoting territorial rollout of broadband infrastructures. The experiences of these two countries can be seen to be of scientific interest and political relevance especially for the following two reasons: Both countries have been forerunners in the development of information society in general, and telecommunications in particular. Secondly, these two countries are sparsely populated, which is a most relevant conditioning factor in the rollout of broadband infrastructures characterised by nodal features. Despite the above-mentioned similarities of the two countries, they have applied quite different strategies in the rollout of broadband. In Sweden, the public sector has taken a more interventionist role than in Finland. This implies the question whether and how this difference can be seen in the territoriality of broadband supply. The paper attempts to answer this question, and provide conclusions for effective policy strategies. The paper is an outgrowth of the ESPON (European Spatial Planning Observation Network) project 1.2.2 “Telecommunications Services and Networks: Territorial Trends and Basic Supply of Infrastructure for Territorial Cohesion” (see: http://www.espon.lu).

Third report on economic and social cohesion

The report is likely to have a central role in shaping policy discussions on cohesion and regional development related issues for the foreseeable future, not least because it provides a blueprint for European cohesion policy after EU-enlargement in May 2004 and for the next Structural Funds programming period beyond 2006. It is also highly relevant to academic research in this area, e.g. through the work undertaken within the ESPON research framework To highlight this important event we will have a number of experts on regional policy and cohesion commenting on the report, its findings and its academic relevance

Third report on economic and social cohesion

The third cohesion report seems to have been written primarily as a defence of the structural funds operations. They are promoted as growth policies against the background of the classical economic dilemma, which has been raised recently in some influential and critical analyses of EU regional policies, namely, whether regional policies act as a burden or as a resource from the macro-economic point of view. The report thus attempts to respond to views questioning the need for a regional dimension in EU policy strategies

Cross-border shopping at the EU's Eastern edge: the cases of Finnish-Russian and Polish-Ukrainian border regions

Untersucht wird das grenzüberschreitende Einkaufen zwischen Finnland und Russland sowie Polen und der Ukraine seit dem Zerfall der Sowjetunion. Es geht hier hauptsächlich um bestimmende Faktoren, Auslöser und Ausprägungen dieser Tätigkeit zusätzlich zu ihrem Umfang und ihren Trends, um deren Auswirkungen auf den grenzüberschreitenden Austausch und die regionale Entwicklung zu verstehen. Dieses Einkaufen macht einen wesentlichen Teil der gesamten Mobilität aus und ist durch vergleichbare Fluktuationen auf beiden Seiten der untersuchten Grenzen gekennzeichnet, während es in beiden Fällen auch einige Spezifika gibt. Ein gemeinsamer Aspekt ist, dass in den ersten Jahren nach dem Regimewechsel eine Schattenwirtschaft in unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen beim Grenzübergang eine wichtige Rolle gespielt hat. Seit damals hat der normale grenzüberschreitende Einkaufstourismus, der durch die Attraktivität des Nachbarlands als Reise- und Freizeitziel begünstigt wurde, mit dem Zustrom von Russen nach Finnland an Bedeutung gewonnen, während die meisten Einkaufsbesuche von Ukrainern nach Polen weiterhin mit gewinnorientiertem Weiterverkauf verknüpft waren. Veränderungen der Devisenkurse stellten sich in beiden Fällen ebenso als Faktoren heraus, insbesondere bei den kurzen und häufigen Fahrten Finnland-Russland und (hauptsächlich) Ukraine-Polen zur Nutzung von Preisunterschieden bei besteuerten Gütern wie Kraftstoff und Zigaretten. Schließlich wird auch darauf hingewiesen, dass grenzüberschreitendes Einkaufen direkte Auswirkungen auf die regionale Entwicklung haben kann, da lokale/regionale Interessenvertreter darin einen wirtschaftlichen Vorteil sehen: Die Anziehung von Einkaufstouristen aus Russland ist in Südost-Finnland trotz der Anfälligkeit für Veränderungen bei den geopolitischer Bedingungen eine wichtige Entwicklungsstrategie geworden.This paper investigates cross-border shopping across the Finnish-Russian and the Polish-Ukrainian borders since the disintegration of the Soviet Union from a comparative perspective. Cross-border shopping can be defined in various ways for diverse purposes; this study is interested mainly in the conditioning factors, drivers and forms of this activity in addition to its volumes and trends in order to understand its implications to cross-border interaction and regional development. It is observed that cross-border shopping accounts for a substantial part of all mobility and that cross-border shopping is characterized by comparable fluctuations across both of the studied borders, while the two cases show some specific features, too. A common aspect is that during the first years after the regime change, informal economic activities in various forms played a major role in border crossings in these two regions. Since then, ordinary cross-border shopping tourism supported by the attractiveness of the neighbouring country as a travel and leisure destination has grown in importance in the influx of Russians into Finland, whereas most shopping visits by Ukrainians to Poland continued to be linked to profit-oriented reselling. Also, changes in exchange rates resulting from geopolitical turns and economic cycles have proved to be factors in both cases, particularly in conditioning short and frequent trips from Finland to Russia and (mainly) from Ukraine to Poland for utilizing differences in prices of excise commodities such as fuel and cigarettes. Finally, the study also shows that cross-border shop¬ping may have direct implications to regional development, as local-regional policy stakeholders may see it as an asset: the attraction of shopping tourists from Russia has become a key development strategy in Southeast Finland despite the vulnerability to changes in geopolitical conditions

Does Fertility Respond to Financial Incentives?

There has been little empirical work evaluating the sensitivity of fertility to financial incentives at the household level. We put forward an identification strategy that relies on the fact that variation of wages induces variation in benefits and tax credits among "comparable" households. We implement this approach by estimating a discrete choice model of female participation and fertility, using individual data from the French Labor Force Survey and a fairly detailed representation of the French tax-benefit system. Our results suggest that financial incentives play a notable role in determining fertility decisions in France, both for the first and for the third child. As an example, an unconditional child benefit with a direct cost of 0.3% of GDP might raise total fertility by about 0.3 point