Lack of capital has for long, if not always, been perceived as one of the most important impediments to economic activity in Finland the Achilles heel of the Finnish economy. This volume takes a long-term perspective on this perception. It considers how the Finnish financial system and the financing of Finnish firms have advanced during the past two decades and particularly since the economic crisis of the early 1990s. The volume consists of eleven studies and focuses on the following two sets of questions:
How has the Finnish financial system advanced during the past two decades? How has the overall availability of external finance to Finnish firms and especially to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) changed as a result? What are the main sources of capital to Finnish SMEs?
What are the respective roles of private and public sources of capital in a constantly developing financial system? What implications does the ongoing financial development have for industrial policy at large and innovation policy in particular?
It is found that even though the overall availability of finance to Finnish firms has improved a great deal due to the ongoing financial development, the availability of finance seems still to be an issue for growth-oriented and innovative SMEs. These firms would above all benefit from having a continuum of strong markets for external equity capital. The ongoing financial development means, however, that government intervention in the capital markets is increasingly harder to justify purely on the basis of the existence of capital market failures.
Ari Hyytisen ja Mika Pajarisen toimittama Financial Systems and Firm Performance -kirjassa käsitellään mm. seuraavia kysymyksiä:
– Kuinka Suomen rahoitusjärjestelmä on kehittynyt viimeisien kahden vuosikymmenen aikana ja erityisesti 1990-luvulla?
– Mitkä ovat pk-yritysten tärkeimmät rahoituslähteet?
– Onko ulkopuolisen rahoituksen saatavuudessa tapahtunut muutoksia erityisesti pk-yritysten kohdalla?
– Onko yrityksille tarjolla riittävästi rahoitusta erityisesti niiden kasvuvaiheessa?
– Mikä on yksityisen ja julkisen yritysrahoituksen rooli muuttuvassa rahoitusjärjestelmässä?
– Mitä rahoitusjärjestelmän kehittyminen merkitsee elinkeino- ja teknologiapolitiikan kannalta?
