Research
My research and policy briefs have been featured in both international (The Economist, Wired) and Finnish (e.g. YLE, Helsingin Sanomat) media outlets. In addition, I’ve presented my work at multiple academic conferences, as well as at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in Finland.
You can find a list of my research also on my Google Scholar profile.
Working Papers
What Do Technology Grants Do? [link]
(with Aapo Stenhammar and Joonas Tuhkuri)
Under revision for the Quarterly Journal of Economics
Abstract: We present new evidence on the impact of EU technology grants on employment and skill mix in Finnish small and medium-sized manufacturing firms, 1994–2018. The subsidies funded new machinery, including robots. Comparing closely matched grant winners and losers, we find that subsidized investments raised employment by 23 percent with no detectable change in the skill mix. We use machine learning on the text of application evaluations to match firms. We then analyze firms’ stated plans and later actions and find that the subsidies primarily supported expansion—new products and markets—rather than automation of work. By contrast, outside the program, IT investment is more strongly linked to skill upgrading than machinery investment, consistent with different technologies shaping skill demand differently. Technology grants raised employment while leaving the skill mix essentially unchanged, creating opportunities for non-college workers.
Work in Progress
Who Gains from Crisis Subsidies? Firm Productivity, Place, and Labor Reallocation
(with Otto Kässi and Olli Ropponen)
From Breakthroughs to Derivatives: How Grants Redirect Inventors
(with Joakim Wikström)
Policy Reports
The Effects of Covid-related Business Subsidies in Finland (in Finnish) [link]
(with Olli Ropponen, Heli Koski, Otto Kässi, Nelli Valmari, and Ilkka Ylhäinen). February 2024.
Business Finland COVID-19 Support Funding – What Was Achieved, and at What Cost? (in Finnish) [link]
(with Otto Kässi and Olli Ropponen). December 2023.
Did Digitalization Increase the Resilience of Societies During the COVID-19 Pandemic? (in Finnish) [link]
(with Otto Kässi, Jyrki Ali-Yrkkö, and Mika Pajarinen). March 2023.
Are Global Value Chains Changing? (in Finnish) [link]
(with Jyrki Ali-Yrkkö and Mika Pajarinen). February 2023.
Policy Brief: New Evidence on the Effect of Technology on Employment and Skill Demand (in Finnish) [link]
(with Aapo Stenhammar and Joonas Tuhkuri). April 2022.
In Search of Upcoming Supply Chain Surprises: The World Export Market Shares of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine [link]
(with Jyrki Ali-Yrkkö and Petri Rouvinen). March 2022.
The Significance of Russia for Finnish Companies (in Finnish) [link]
(with Jyrki Ali-Yrkkö and Aki Kangasharju). March 2022.