The Attractiveness of Finland as a Location for Productive Companies and Talented People

This research project aims to produce new, policy‐relevant information on factors that enhance the attractiveness of Finland for productive companies and talented individuals. Maintaining the Finnish welfare state requires robust economic growth. To achieve this, Finland needs to increase R&D expenditure, since R&D is a key determinant of economic growth. However, merely increasing spending is not enough. The increased outlays need to be used productively, which means that Finland needs to attract talented people and productive companies to Finland. For example, raising R&D expenditures to 4% of GDP requires that Finland becomes an attractive location for both firms’ R&D activities and international experts.

More concretely, this project:

• evaluates policies used to attract talented people to Finland,
• studies the determinants of firms’ R&D location decisions and the role of public policy in shaping these decisions,
• analyses the disadvantages of Finland as an investment location for foreign companies, and
• studies the firm dynamics of Finnish enterprises and what those dynamics reveal about the attractiveness of Finland for foreign direct investment.

The project uses high‐quality register and survey data and state‐of‐the‐art empirical methods to provide new information on the attractiveness of Finland for skilled people and companies. The results highlight the successes and challenges of Finnish policies to attract productive companies and skilled persons to Finland. These results can be used in the planning of policy measures aimed at improving Finland’s attractiveness.