Browsing by study line "Yleinen opintosuunta"
Now showing items 41-44 of 44
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(2023)Yhden puolueen ehdottomat enemmistöt ovat Suomen kunnanvaltuustoissa varsin yleisiä. Tällaisissa valtuustoissa suurimmalla puolueella on yli puolet valtuustopaikoista ja päätöksenteon kannalta olennainen enemmistö. Suomen kuntavaaleissa käydään järjestään täpäriä vaaleja, joissa ehdottoman enemmistön muodostuminen suurimmalle puolueelle on hyvin pienestä kiinni – usein jopa yksittäisistä äänistä. Toisin sanoen yksittäinen äänestäjäjoukko voi äänestyspäätöksellään vaikuttaa siihen, onko tulevalla valtuustokaudella yhdellä puolueella yli puolet valtuustopaikoista. Tämä avaa mielenkiintoisia mahdollisuuksia muun muassa taktiselle äänestämiselle, sillä yksittäisillä äänillä voi olla ratkaiseva vaikutus. Siksi juuri taktisen äänestämisen näkökulmasta on tärkeää ymmärtää, millaisia seurauksia ehdottomalla enemmistöllä voi olla päätöksentekoon sekä yleisesti kunnan toimintaan. Hyvinvointialueiden perustamisen myötä yhdeksi kuntien merkittävimmäksi tehtäväksi on jäänyt opetus- ja kulttuuritoiminnan järjestäminen. Näistä syistä tarkastelen tässä tutkielmassa, vaikuttaako ehdoton enemmistö kunnan opetus- ja kulttuuritoiminnan menoihin. Hyödynnän kuntavaaleissa käytyjä täpäriä vaaleja ja vertaan keskenään kuntia, joissa suurin puolue on juuri ja juuri saavuttanut ehdottoman enemmistön, sellaisiin kuntiin, joissa se on juuri ja juuri jäänyt saavuttamatta. Estimoin vaikutusta regressioepäjatkuvuusmenetelmän (RDD) avulla. Samaa kysymystä on aikaisemmin tutkittu myös hyödyntäen RDD:tä ja Suomen kuntavaalidataa. Tähän olemassa olevaan kirjallisuuteen verrattuna tulen tarkastelemaan tässä tutkielmassa kysymystä tuoreemmalta ajanjaksolta vuosilta 2008–2020 sisältäen kolme kokonaista vaalikautta ja yhteensä 878 yksittäistä vaalia. Aiemmasta kirjallisuudesta poiketen tulosten mukaan ehdottomalla enemmistöllä vaikuttaisi olevan positiivinen vaikutus. Se on suunnilleen samaa luokkaa läpi vaalikauden, joskin tilastollisesti merkitsevä ainoastaan keskellä vaalikautta kolmantena vuotena. Tuolloin suurimman puolueen ehdoton enemmistö kunnanvaltuustossa kasvattaa opetus- ja kulttuuritoiminnan nettokäyttökustannuksia noin 60 euroa asukasta kohden, mikä vastaa noin neljää prosenttia Suomen kuntien keskimääräisestä opetus- ja kulttuuritoiminnan vuosittaisesta nettokäyttökustannuksesta.
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(2024)As public concern over the state of biodiversity has increased, demands for incorporating biodiversity and its value into already existing notions of capital and decision-making can be expected to rise as well. Since there are no markets for the state of biodiversity, non-market valuation methods need to be employed. Ecosystem services can serve as a link connecting nature and human well-being, and they can be viewed as sources of economic value of biodiversity. Key valuation methods can be divided into two groups: stated preference methods and revealed preference methods. The former employ surveys, bidding formats, open-ended questions, and hypothetical scenarios to determine how much respondents value various aspects of biodiversity. While stated preference methods are appreciated for their applicability to hypothetical and future scenarios, especially when market-based data is unavailable, they are prone to potential biases around experiment design. Revealed preference methods, on the other hand, rely on market data to derive preferences for different aspects of biodiversity. Two primary approaches involve using data either from travel costs or property markets. Hedonic pricing is part of the revealed preference methods, and it centres around a notion that value of a good consists of the attributes of the good that provides utility to consumers. Hedonic prices represent the implicit prices of these attributes. The method is commonly applied to housing markets where the attributes can be, for example air and water quality or variety of neighbourhood’s urban green spaces. Rosen's hedonic model employs a two-stage approach. In the first stage, market prices are regressed on the attributes to establish the hedonic price function. In the second one, the hedonic price function is used to derive marginal willingness to pay function for the attribute. However, the second stage has faced scrutiny due to endogeneity concerns. It is thought that unobserved taste parameters influence both consumer consumption patterns and the hedonic price of the attribute. There are various approaches to try to overcome this endogeneity issue. Alternatively, the model can be used in its first stage only, excluding valuations of non-marginal changes from the analysis. The range of methods for valuing biodiversity is broad, providing a diverse set of starting points for creating estimates. Because biodiversity is a versatile concept, its value can arise from various sources. It is crucial to understand the limitations and possibilities of each method when deriving valid estimates for the value of biodiversity. Without careful consideration, the estimates may fail to provide value to anyone.
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(2023)This thesis investigates whether the Finnish house market experienced a housing bubble through 2015 to 2021. During the period in question, the world suffered the global pandemic, Covid-19, which influenced fluctuations in different markets such as labor, housing, and financial. Study of this thesis focuses on the house market of Finland as a whole, divided between old and new apartment types with data spreading quarterly from 2015 to 2021. Beginning with summarizing the various definitions of a bubble made in the literature and studies regarding housing bubbles, this thesis bases its study on the most commonly used definition of bubble presented as deviation from economic fundamentals. After the introduction and definition discussion, this thesis introduces the theoretical framework and analysis of the three conventional ratios of house price dynamics from the aforementioned literature. These ratios being the price-to-income ratio, price-to-rent ratio, and imputed-to-actual rent ratio. The imputed-to-actual rent ratio includes the user cost formula which is modified to fit the Finnish house market landscape. The results from the ratio analysis show only weak or non-existent proof of a bubble based on the severity when compared to results from the literature of other markets. Between apartment types, the price increase has been considerably higher for new type than for old implying overvaluation for new apartments, which can be seen throughout the ratio analysis as well. Final part includes the stationarity and the cointegration tests. The ADF test on stationarity is conducted on the first two ratios and results show that the price-to-income ratio is stationary for old type but non-stationary for new type. When the ADF test is conducted on first difference to validate the result, both types show stationarity, while for the price-to-rent ratio, both types show non-stationarity and on the first difference, old type stays non-stationary at 90% significance. Lastly, the cointegration model for testing if the house prices are deviating from the economic fundamentals is constructed. Results of cointegration test show that house prices cannot be explained by the set of economic fundamentals except household income since test statistic does not reject the null hypothesis of no cointegration. The conclusion outlines that although some of the results are showing towards a bubble, the evidence is too weak and insignificant to prove it.
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(2023)Commitments to curb climate change and to cut greenhouse gas emissions have been increasing globally over recent years. De-carbonization and electrification of energy systems is central to reaching these targets and the share of renewable electricity generation is expected to grow rapidly across markets. This growth requires significant new investment into renewable generation technologies. This thesis contributes to the literature on the valuation of renewable energy as investment. It evaluates the attractiveness of onshore wind energy as long-term investment target in the Finnish market. The net present values (NPVs) of two wind farm investment projects are calculated, comparing the sensitivity of the outcomes to alternative rates of weighted average cost of capital (WACC). The project scenarios are defined such that they represent typical project characteristics based on recent data on onshore wind farm projects in Finland. Uncertainty over the future electricity capture prices for onshore wind and the risk of price cannibalization is included in the analysis with a Monte Carlo simulation of the NPV. The probability distribution for uncertain future price outcomes is based on data from a source study that develops several possible paths for the evolution of the Finnish electricity market by means of systemic scenario modeling. The research question is topical, because the financing of renewable electricity investments has been moving from a subsidies-driven model to market-based financing in Finland. The results of the research suggest that the attractiveness of onshore wind investment in Finland is highly sensitive to the WACC rate as well as to the assumptions made about the risk of future capture price cannibalization. It is possible that further policy support will be needed in the future to ensure that growth targets in renewable energy generation capacity are reached.
Now showing items 41-44 of 44