Finland’s regional GDPs 1880-2010: estimates, sources and interpretations
(2014) In Lund Papers in Economic History. General Issues- Abstract
- This paper provides the first consistent long-run estimates of Finnish regional GDPs, from 1880 to 2010. Estimates are provided for 12 historical counties as well as for the 5 current-border NUTS 2-regions. The main results from the analyses of the long-run evolution of regional GDPs are the following. Firstly, it is clear that Finland’s geographical position, in the intersection between Eastern and Western Europe, has led to a history of balancing between the two powers. A long-run economic decline of the historically important regions of the west is documented. Simultaneously access to Russian markets advanced the East, but trade was subject to several large shocks, notably with the Finnish independence of 1917 and the collapse of the... (More)
- This paper provides the first consistent long-run estimates of Finnish regional GDPs, from 1880 to 2010. Estimates are provided for 12 historical counties as well as for the 5 current-border NUTS 2-regions. The main results from the analyses of the long-run evolution of regional GDPs are the following. Firstly, it is clear that Finland’s geographical position, in the intersection between Eastern and Western Europe, has led to a history of balancing between the two powers. A long-run economic decline of the historically important regions of the west is documented. Simultaneously access to Russian markets advanced the East, but trade was subject to several large shocks, notably with the Finnish independence of 1917 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Over the long run, the paper finds that the southern part of the country has been the winner in the Finnish regional growth league. Secondly, the paper analyses regional inequality and finds that Finland’s counties and regions were relatively unequal in European comparison during early industrialization. Rapid convergence in GDP per capita only took place after the Second World War, but was interrupted by the 1980s and replaced by a new tendency for divergence. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/7868890
- author
- Enflo, Kerstin LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2014
- type
- Working paper/Preprint
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Industrialization, Regional inequality, Regional income, Economic growth
- in
- Lund Papers in Economic History. General Issues
- issue
- 135
- pages
- 36 pages
- publisher
- Department of Economic History, Lund University
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 2bf53d5b-1c2b-403c-abbf-ec3af08a9e47 (old id 7868890)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 10:11:57
- date last changed
- 2021-10-01 02:19:57
@misc{2bf53d5b-1c2b-403c-abbf-ec3af08a9e47, abstract = {{This paper provides the first consistent long-run estimates of Finnish regional GDPs, from 1880 to 2010. Estimates are provided for 12 historical counties as well as for the 5 current-border NUTS 2-regions. The main results from the analyses of the long-run evolution of regional GDPs are the following. Firstly, it is clear that Finland’s geographical position, in the intersection between Eastern and Western Europe, has led to a history of balancing between the two powers. A long-run economic decline of the historically important regions of the west is documented. Simultaneously access to Russian markets advanced the East, but trade was subject to several large shocks, notably with the Finnish independence of 1917 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Over the long run, the paper finds that the southern part of the country has been the winner in the Finnish regional growth league. Secondly, the paper analyses regional inequality and finds that Finland’s counties and regions were relatively unequal in European comparison during early industrialization. Rapid convergence in GDP per capita only took place after the Second World War, but was interrupted by the 1980s and replaced by a new tendency for divergence.}}, author = {{Enflo, Kerstin}}, keywords = {{Industrialization; Regional inequality; Regional income; Economic growth}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Working Paper}}, number = {{135}}, publisher = {{Department of Economic History, Lund University}}, series = {{Lund Papers in Economic History. General Issues}}, title = {{Finland’s regional GDPs 1880-2010: estimates, sources and interpretations}}, url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/18258181/2014_135.pdf}}, year = {{2014}}, }