Browsing by study line "Taloustieteen yleinen opintosuunta"

The purpose of the thesis is to explore the link between labour markets and transportation accessibility. Accessibility has been estimated with logsum and travel times of public and private transportation. Logsum as a concept has been used in the transportation system estimation, all though all in all logsum as a measure of accessibility is not as established as travel times. This way the overview of the effects of accessibility to employment is thorough. I also evaluate how impact assessment of transportation is done historically and how wider economic impacts are considered in the framework. Cost-benefit analysis is widely used, but the framework should be improved on how to include wider economic impacts. The methods section goes through how transportation system estimation is done. The used data in the estimation is collected from three dependencies. These are the interview-based traveling habits from Helsingin Seudun Liikenne, Statistics Finland metropolitan regional employment statistics and travel times of public and private transportation from Helsinki Region Travel Time Matrix. In the results I go through the empirical model. Travel time, logsum and employment are all viewed as an elasticity measure. The results of the model are reasonable and in line with the previous literature, but the coefficient of determination ends up quite low. This means that the results still need confirmation, either through better data or better estimation model. My results can be viewed as a preliminary result on the link between employment and accessibility.

This thesis investigates the tax base and allocation choices in international corporate income tax architecture and provides an evaluation of the effects of the choices made in three different systems: the current system, residual profit allocation, and OECD Pillar One. International corporate income tax design has a significant effect on the functioning of the international economy and on the welfare of individuals. Thus, making the correct design choices is extremely important. This thesis argues that the international corporate income tax system should be designed following certain important principles of taxation: 1) fairness, 2) economic efficiency, 3) robustness to avoidance, 4) administrative ease, and 5) incentive compatibility. The different systems are then introduced in turn and evaluated against these criteria. The thesis finds that the current system suffers from certain conceptual weaknesses that leave significant room for improvement with regards to the set criteria. It is further argued that a reform is required for the continued functioning of the international system. Such a reform could be introduced in the form of residual profit allocation. OECD Pillar One proposal involves elements of residual profit allocation, but in comparing the different systems with each other, this thesis argues that the OECD proposal is too narrow in scope to gain the full benefits of a residual profit allocation system.

Asymmetric information in insurance markets is the result of policyholders, the buyers of insurance, having more information about their own risk types and preferences than the insurer. Informational asymmetry between the insurer and policyholders can lead to non-optimal insurance prices and quantities which reduce market efficiency. While the presence of asymmetric information has been widely studied in several insurance markets, it has not been empirically studied in the Finnish automobile insurance market before. This thesis aims to fill this gap in literature. The Finnish automobile insurance market consists of two types of insurance. Motor liability insurance is required by law from all vehicles used for driving in traffic. Also, voluntary automobile insurance can be acquired in addition to the mandatory motor liability insurance. In this thesis, the presence of asymmetric information is studied by comparing the occurrence of motor liability insurance claims, conditioned with the pricing variables used by the insurer, between policyholders who only have a motor liability insurance policy and policyholders with an additional automobile insurance policy. The data set used in this thesis is from a single Finnish insurance company. The data set is from the year 2019 and it contains nearly 105,000 motor liability insurance policies. The data include all variables observed by the insurer. Several regression specifications and the widely used positive correlation test are used in this thesis to study the correlation between insurance coverage and motor liability insurance claims. The results of this thesis suggest that signs of asymmetric information are not present at aggregate level in the Finnish automobile insurance market in question. However, different subgroups of policyholders show signs of asymmetric information: After controlling for the pricing variables, policyholders with an automobile insurance policy with the largest coverage show a positive correlation between buying automobile insurance and motor liability insurance claims whereas policyholders with an automobile insurance policy with the third largest coverage show a negative coverage-claims correlation. However, the results from different regression specifications regarding different automobile insurance coverages were not unanimous and thus the results are left ambiguous. In addition, new policyholders considered as experienced drivers show a negative correlation between motor liability insurance claims and having automobile insurance coverage. On the contrary, policyholders considered as experienced drivers with 1–2 years of company experience do not show signs of asymmetric information. The result suggests that the insurer learns from its repeat customers as signs of informational asymmetry disappear over time. Moreover, policyholders considered as unexperienced drivers do not show signs of asymmetric information regardless of the length of their customership in the firm. The results are in line with previous research.

The prevailing volatility of the price/spread related to catastrophe risk around this newly innovative type of instrument, called CAT bond, gave light to this literature. Contrarily to normal type of insurance coverage risks (such as cars, houses, etc...) risk associated to natural and human catastrophes is more unpredictable and costly for (re)insurance companies. Insurance and reinsurance companies found a way to finance this expensive risk by shifting it to investors through Insurance-Linked Securities (ILS), more precisely and successfully, CAT bonds. By cross-checking data and information from multitude of sources, I investigated which are the main determinants capable to influence the price, spread or coupon of a catastrophe bond on the primary market for those instruments. This paper gathers data of 284 catastrophe bonds issued in the market between January 2013 and October 2021 provided by Artemis deal directory. My research contains an introduction part on those innovative type of bonds, an overview on previous research regarding the question and their results, and some empirical data on the main goal of this work, which is defining what variables influence the price of the CAT bond in the primary market. OLS regressions techniques with heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent standard errors are mainly used based on multifactor based models in order to identify the main determinants of the price. The work of Alexander Braun will be the main inspiration for this work, I will apply a couple of same techniques on my work, according to the data available and Stata limitations. The outcome of the larger model including the whole set of variables and crossed variables shows that the expected loss is the major influencers of the catastrophe risk prices for both the in-sample and out-of-sample estimation and across diversified subsamples and models. As per the conclusion from previous researchers, the expected loss variable has shown to impact positively the price of the coupon bond much more than any other variable.

Abstract Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences Program: Economics Study track: General Track Author: Julius Vili Henrik Rissanen Title: Comparing cost-effectiveness of short-term and long-term psychodynamic psychotherapies focusing on patients with depressive disorder and their work ability during a 5-year follow-up. Level: Master’s Thesis Month and Year: November 2021 Number of Pages: Keywords: Psychotherapy; cost-effectiveness; Work Ability; psychodynamic; randomized trial; Instructors: Roope Uusitalo, Lauri Sääksvuori, Costanza Biavaschi, Olavi Lindfors Deposited at: Helsingin Yliopiston kirjasto Other information: Abstract: Background: Mental health disorders pose significant burden to the society, for example, because of decreased work ability. Psychotherapy as one of the most important treatment methods also causes significant costs for the healthcare system. Putting effort into cost-effectiveness between the different therapy types can help promote better targeting of treatments and economic efficiency in society. Aims: Explore cost-effectiveness in improving work ability between short-term and long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy in patients with depression. Methods: The 192 depressive patients randomized to two psychotherapies of different lengths in the Helsinki Psychotherapy Study were measured in baseline and annually for five years. Work Ability Index (WAI) and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) as an effectiveness outcome measures were compared to the total direct costs with incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) between the treatments. Results: The total direct cost of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (SPP; €7,087) was significantly lower than for long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (LPP; €19,959). The biggest explanatory factor between the cost of the treatments was protocol study therapy costs (SPP €1304; LPP €16,715). In addition, those randomized to the SPP had significant costs during the follow-up from the non-protocol auxiliary psychotherapy treatments (€5142) which were more than fives times compared to the LPP. All of these cost differences between the treatment groups were statistically significant. Psychotropic medication and outpatient care each averaged below €2000, and the differences weren’t statistically significant. Psychiatric hospitalization during the follow-up was rare but yielded significant costs to the associated patients. Differences of effectiveness between the treatment groups on the work ability were not statistically significant. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was highly unstable due to small differences in efficiency, but large differences in cost. Conclusions: The study found a clear difference in cost in favour of SPP without losing in the effectiveness of the treatment. However, patients in the SPP used a significant amount of non-protocol auxiliary psychotherapy treatments which may be an indication of insufficient therapy treatment. The absence of difference in the effectiveness can be thus attributed to the widespread utilization of additional treatments in the SPP. Going forward, expanding the study to account for the impact of patient’s suitability to the treatment, particularly in understanding SPP cost-effectiveness, would be worthwhile.

Tämän maisterintutkielman tavoitteena on tarkastella sitä, miten markkinakriisi vaikuttaa sijoittajien käyttäytymiseen ja dispositioefektin ilmenevyyteen ja sen muutoksiin. Aineisto on kerätty COVID-19-pandemian aikana ja koostuu suomalaisista sijoittajista. Tutkimuksessa pyritään lisäksi löytämään demografisia muuttujia, joilla dispositioefektin ilmenevyyttä voitaisiin selittää. Tutkimuksessa tuloksille luodaan viitekehys aiemmista empiirisistä tutkimuksista ja teorioista, joilla dispositioefektiä on havainnollistettu ja selitetty. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen jälkeen tutkimuksessa siirrytään empiiriseen osioon, jossa dispositioefektiä ja sen muutosta mitataan suomalaisista yksityissijoittajista koostuvan aineiston pohjalta. Aineisto koostuu kahdesta osasta, joista ensimmäinen pitää sisällään suomalaisten sijoittajien transaktioita ja toinen Helsingin pörssissä listattujen osakkeiden hintatietoja vuosilta 2017-2021. Dispositioefektin voimakkuuden laskemiseksi käytetään mallia, jossa verrataan sijoittajan realisoimattomien ja realisoitujen osakkeiden markkinahintojen suhdetta. Dispositioefektin muutosta COVID-19-kriisin aikana tutkitaan aikasarja-analyysilla, ja demografisten muuttujien yhteyttä dispositioefektin suuntaan ja voimakkuuteen puolestaan regressioanalyysilla. Tutkimuksen keskeiset tulokset osoittavat, että sijoittajat kärsivät dispositioefektistä. Tämä tutkimustulos tukee aiempia tutkimuksia. Aikasarja-analyysin tulokset indikoivat, että sijoittajien reaktio COVID-19-kriisiin vähentää dispositioefektin määrää ja että sijoittajat ovat halukkaampia realisoimaan myös tappioitaan COVID-19-kriisin alkamisen jälkeen. Tulokset tukevat aiempia tutkimuksia, joiden mukaan markkinan tilalla on vaikutusta sijoittajien dispositioefektin voimakkuuteen, ja teorioita, joiden mukaan sijoittajat ovat halukkaita realisoimaan tappioita, kun he olettavat markkinahintojen jatkavan laskuaan. Regressioanalyysin tulokset osoittavat naisten kärsivän miehiä voimakkaammasta dispositioefektistä, mikä on myös linjassa aiempien tutkimustulosten kanssa. Toisin kuin aiemmissa tutkimuksissa, tässä tutkimuksessa iällä ei havaittu olevan vaikutusta dispositioefektin ilmenevyyteen tai voimakkuuteen. Dispositioefekti on hyvin tunnettu ja empiirisesti koeteltu sijoittajilla havaittu käyttäytymisharha. Tämän tutkielman tulokset tukevat aiempaa tutkimusta ja antavat uutta tietoa siitä, kuinka sijoittajat reagoivat globaaliin markkinakriisiin ja siitä, miten dispositioefektin ilmenevyys ja voimakkuus muuttuvat sijoittajien kohdatessa markkinakriisin, jonka ominaispiirteitä ovat pelko ja epävarmuus.

Wage discrimination occurs when employees of equal productivity receive different wages due to characteristics such as ethnicity, sex, or nationality, which do not affect their productivity directly. One of the common challenges in empirical research on wages has always been the challenge of determining individual employees` productivity. Professional sports leagues such as NBA (National Basketball Association) provide an ideal setting for the study of salary discrimination, as the salaries, players` backgrounds, and different statistical measures of players` performance throughout their whole careers are available publicly. Therefore, economists have used professional sports leagues when studying salary discrimination by ethnicity or nationality. The objective of this research is to find out whether salary discrimination by nationality occurs in the NBA during the period between 2016 and 2018. The research consists of a literature review that introduces previous findings on salary discrimination by nationality in the NBA, and an empirical part which aim is to find out whether this discrimination still occurs in the 2016 – 2018. The dataset of this thesis consists of statistics that measure NBA players' on-court performance and salary during the 2016 – 2017 and 2017 – 2018 seasons, as well as their nationality, and physical attributes. The empirical analysis is carried out using linear regression-analysis, which has been a standard in previous researches on salary discrimination by nationality in the NBA. Moreover, this study applies Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition, which is one of the standard tools used in salary discrimination studies in general. The statistical analysis of this study does not find discrimination by nationality against either foreign or domestic born NBA-players during our sample period. Nevertheless, foreign players earn, on average, around USD 500,000.00 higher annual salaries than their American contemporaries. However, according to our analysis, this difference is explained by foreign players' on-court performance rather than their nationality. Some previous researches find that foreign players from large economic markets receive sizeable salary premiums due to marketing possibilities in their home countries. However, this study does not find the market size of a player's home country to have a statistically significant effect on their salaries. The earliest literature on salary discrimination by nationality in the NBA dates back to the 1990s. Over the years, the results of previous researches have varied between foreign or domestic players being discriminated against by nationality. However, as different tools for statistical analysis on player performance have improved drastically and basketball has indeed become a global sport over the years, it seems that discrimination by nationality does not occur in the NBA anymore in 2019.

In this thesis, I analyze the causes and consequences of the Asian Crisis 1997 and simulate it with Dynare. The model includes financial accelerator mechanism, which in part explains the dynamics and the magnitude of the crisis via balance sheet effects. I find that the major components of the crisis were highly similar to other crisis that had happened in other emerging economies: High levels of foreign-currency denominated debt, unsound financial regulation, and fixed exchange rates with skewed valuation. Even though this simulation do not specifically incorporated different exchange rate regimes into the simulation, the previous literature draw a clear conclusion that flexible exchange rates lessen the shock’s effects on the economy. Thailand, as well as other ASEAN-countries during the crisis, faced severe economic contraction as well as changes in political landscape: Due to the crisis, Thailand’s GDP contracted over 10 percent, the country lost almost a million jobs, and the stock exchange index fell 75 percent. In addition, the country underwent riots, resignation of ministers, and several political changes towards more democratic institutions, even though faced some backlash and re-entry of authoritarian figures later. As the crisis worsened, IMF collected a large rescue package that was given to ASEAN-countries with preconditioned austerity policies. The simulation with recalibrated parameter-values seems to be relatively accurate. The dynamics and the impact of the crisis is captured realistically with correct magnitudes. The financial accelerator mechanism accounts a large part of the shock’s impact on investment and companies net worth, but do not account much on overall decline in output.

This thesis examines the macroeconomic impact of Covid-19, constructing a DSGE model incorporating wage rigidity and consumption habit. This paper captures the characteristics of the Finnish economy, such as high wages and high consumption habits, and aims to analyze the macroeconomic impact of Covid-19 in Finland. Based on the New Keynesian DSGE model and combined with the SVAR method, focusing on the adverse effects of Covid-19 and analyzing how to mitigate its negative effects. After building the DSGE model, Bayesian estimation was performed using the parameters of Kilponen (2016) as the prior distribution, after which impulse response analysis was performed. At the same time, the effectiveness of fiscal policy and monetary policy is analyzed. The results of the empirical model support the conclusions in the theoretical model. The results show that the decline in utility due to insufficient consumption preferences significantly impacts consumption and output, causing aggregate consumption to decline and remain below steady-state levels for a long time. The level of labor supply is negatively affected by underconsumption. But the shock to consumer preference increased investment, offsetting some of the negative shock to output. Inflation and real interest rates also took a downward hit. Real interest rates first fall and then rise but remain below a stable level for a long time as the supply of capital rises when the demand for capital falls. A negative shock to technology causes aggregate consumption and aggregate output, and labor and capital goods to fall. In contrast, a fall in capital value causes Tobin's q to fall. Looking at the impact time of the impulse response, we find that the negative impact on macroeconomic variables is large and long-lasting. A positive government spending shock of one standard deviation would directly increase aggregate output, but its impact on output would be diminished. Compared with fiscal policy and monetary policy, the role of government spending is more likely to bring the economy into a stable state, and its response is more sensitive. We find that fiscal policy has a more significant impact on macroeconomic regulation; this suggests that monetary and fiscal policy need to work together in the context of high inflation and low interest rates. Fiscal policy drives economic recovery and can provide strong support for the realization of monetary policy.

In Finland, entrepreneurs (both employers and self-employed) are, compared to salaried employees, free to increase their compulsory retirement insurance contributions to the public pension fund; this being an alternative to additional saving for retirement in private pension funds. This thesis seeks to identify and further examine factors which supposedly influence entrepreneurs‘ perceived sufficiency of their retirement insurance payments . The purpose is to subsequently recommend retirement policy designs which would incentivize Finnish entrepreneurs to increase their contributions to the public pension fund. The empirical section of this work was conducted on a sample of 2 294 entrepreneurs (1 533 self-employed and 761 employers) who took part in the 2017 Labor Force Ad hoc Survey on Entrepreneurship carried out by Statistics Finland. The initial hypotheses gave rise to four categories of variables, presumably affecting sufficiency of retirement insurance contributions perceived by the study sample; namely, ’Personal characteristics & Business background’, ’Motivation’, ’Future perspectives’ and ’Job satisfaction & excitement’. The obtained results suggest that the majority of the selected variables have an effect on entrepreneurs’ perceived sufficiency of their pension insurance contributions. Besides, the factors identified as negatively affecting the perceived sufficiency of retirement insurance payments were more frequently present in the group of self-employed compared to the group of entrepreneurs (employers). Therefore, it is expected that the self-employed are more prone to pay themselves insufficient pension insurance contributions. However, all these factors are considered as incorrigible since they stem from the very nature of complex human behaviour. In this sense, the behavioural approach seems to be highly relevant when forming retirement insurance policies seeking to encourage prudent saving behaviour. This study applies an alternative approach of behavioural economics to the problematics of retirement saving. The first part of the thesis outlines foundations of behavioural economics which serve as a theoretical background for further analyses. For instance, propositions of procrastination, self-control and mental accounting are discussed.