Jari Ritsilä

Effects of Unemployment on New Firm Formation: Micro-Level Panel Data Evidence from Finland

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive insight into the role that unemployment plays in influencing new firm formation. Panel data models and micro-level data are used to help achieve this objective. We endeavour to identify simultaneously the separate effects of personal, regional and national unemployment on new firm formation in Finland for the period 1987–1995. The results indicate considerable evidence for a positive and non-linear effect of personal unemployment on the likelihood of an individual to become an entrepreneur. The findings also indicate that the economic situation has an effect on firm formation: times of low unemployment and business prosperity favour entrepreneurship. On the other hand, the analysis gives no clear evidence of the regional unemployment situation affecting the likelihood of founding a business.

Evaluation of investment subsidies: when is deadweight zero?

In the evaluation of investment subsidies one of the critical issues concerns the assessment of deadweight, that is, the degree to which projects would have been carried out without grant assistance. With the increasing restrictions on and cuts in subsidies for investment projects in the EU countries maximisation of the impact of the public resources that remain can be achieved through their allocation for projects with minimum deadweight. This paper studies the profile of subsidised zero deadweight investment projects – projects that would be abandoned without public subsidies – in Finland. The empirical analysis is conducted using micro level data on investment projects by private sector firms. The data set comprises 3,423 projects that were granted public investment subsidies between 2001 and 2003. Our results show that the likelihood of zero deadweight is significantly dependent on the characteristics of the subsidised firm, the characteristics of the investment project and the location of the subsidised firm.