Mode of Delivery and the Effectiveness of Foreign Aid: The Example of Missionary Work

Conventional development aid, typically a service from government to government, has been a relatively poor determinant of economic growth or human development in developing countries. In this paper we test whether a distinctly grass-roots delivery mode, as is the case with missionary work, leads to a more effective dispersion of foreign aid. In addition to its mode of delivery, missionary work is also of interest as there is a known positive correlation between the growth rate of Christianity and economic development. We estimate the economic growth impacts of development aid versus missionary work variables by using empirical data from 119 countries and discuss several explanations for ou…

Football match attendance in Finland

Football fans prefer to see their favourite team win in close matches. Compared to other forms of entertainment, the outcome of sport game is unknown beforehand. Opera audience knows the plot in advance, but in football the winner is revealed only after 90 minutes. The scientific literature of modern sport economics demand theory implies that successful leagues must be based on relatively even competition. This degree of parity within a league is labelled as competitive balance. Sport leagues usually claim that outcome uncertainty is necessary to maintain interest among fans. In this paper, uncertainty of outcome hypothesis is tested applying football data from the highest tier in Finnish m…

Sir Thomas More's Utopia : An overlooked economic classic

Sir Thomas More's Utopia, published in 1516, is a classic work of how to organise a society based on common property. With a unique mix of common property, institutions and sound economic insights, we argue that More built a framework for a society that could be viable in the long run. While the conditions that make Utopia work are quite restrictive, it does provide a sketch of a society where common property may not stifle long‐term development, but is associated with productive workers and people content with their lives.

Economic Growth and Religious Production Efficiency

During the past few years, empirical economic growth modeling has emerged by constructing and testing numerous model and explanatory variable alternatives. One of the most promising recent idea consists that also religious aspects should be included as explanatory variables into economic growth models, therefore capturing influences of culture, moral and ethics. Moral institutions and ethics affect the economic development, as for example, trust and honesty are essential requirements for emerging economic activity. Religious activities and beliefs are documented over a long time period in many Western economies, making quantitative empirical time series data available. Following the idea an…

Nordic stock market integration

Availability and consumption of alcoholic beverages: evidence from Finland

The study examines the consumption of alcoholic beverages in Finland over the period 1960 to 2004. Consumption is explained by its own real price, relative prices, expenditure and variables measuring the availability of alcohol. The empirical analysis utilizes information on linkages across different beverages and uses co-integration techniques. The study finds that changes in the availability of alcohol, typically related to institutional changes, have played an important role in determining consumption, especially of beer.

Metamorphosis of Euro Metaphors: The power of mathematical models and drama in economics storytelling.

Urheilun digitalisaatio : E-urheilun yllättävä voittokulku

Jääkiekkoviihteen kysyntätekijä

The provision of professional hockey entertainment requires massive ticket revenues. As players' salaries have reached soaring heights, the stands in the ice rinks must be filled from one night to the next. This study explores some significant demand factors for hockey that can be considered to affect the public's willingness to buy tickets to hockey matches. In Finland, the liberalisation of alcohol culture is also visible in ice hockey spectators. From the point of view of event organisers, consuming alcoholic beverages is a very profitable business. A hockey match allows alcohol consumption, without social tensions. In Finland, economic considerations do not seem to affect the number of …

Ansiokas kulttuurimatka jalkapallon historiaan ja erityisesti englantilaiseen urheiluperinteeseen

Martti Luther taloudellisena ajattelijana

Protestanttisen kristillisyyden reformaattori Martti Luther (1483–1546) oli teologian professori, mutta hänen ajattelullaan on ollut merkittäviä yhteiskunnallisia vaikutuksia, ja hän käytti säännöllisesti taloudellisia esimerkkejä havainnollistamaan eettisiä opetuksiaan. Luther ymmärsi hintamekanismin toiminnan markkinoiden kysynnän ja tarjonnan tasapainottajana ja puolusti vapaata elinkeinoelämää. Lähimmäisenrakkauden tuli kuitenkin toteutua kaikessa taloudellisessa vaihdannassa, eikä hän hyväksynyt pidäkkeetöntä voiton maksimointia tai ostajan hädänalaisen tilan hyväksikäyttöä. Hän kritisoi voimakkaasti katolisen uskon köyhyysideaalia, luostarilaitosta, koronkiskontaa ja monopolivoimien h…

Blessed Mary, Forgive Us Our Deficits

Many studies have explored the medium-term determinants of current account balances. This paper contributes to the existing literature by introducing religious variables that until now have been omitted. We propose that Catholic countries tend to run current account deficits. This result remains robust even if we include both the official financial flows and the variables measuring the quality of institutions. In total we control for close to all of the variables that have been included in previous studies. To rationalize our result we consulted the World Values Survey and discovered that Roman Catholics do not consider thrift as important as other religious groups.

Exploring the Relationship Between Trust and Business Start-Ups in 52 Countries Over 16 Years

A well-functioning social network involves attributes such as honesty, benevolence, fairness and confidence. When this network – trust - has formed, participants can count on reliable and consistent economic transactions. This has the effect of higher level of co-operation, but also co-dependence. Strong social networks, as measured in this study by the degree of interpersonal trust and trust in institutions, are foundational elements for societies wishing to progress to new higher levels of entrepreneurship and development. In a pooled OLS of up to 52 countries and 16 years, this study estimates how changes in interpersonal trust and trust in institutions affect new business creation. The …

Economics of Esports

In this paper, esports market development is exhibited and analyzed through various data sources and literature review. Additionally, economic concepts are applied to the esports environment. Demand characteristics of this emerging market are analyzed by applying the concept of competitive balance as commonly used in economics of sport scrutiny. The elite esports demand is proxied by gathering data on total prize money in the elite esports tournaments and explaining the esports demand by testing various factors measuring the competitive market properties. The most commonly used measurement in economics of sport for measuring withinseason competitive balance is calculated as the actual stand…

Sukupolvet videopelien turnajaisissa : e-urheilun markkinoiden ikärakenne

Digital gaming attracts people of all ages. Nevertheless, professional esports (also known as electronic sports, e-sports, or eSports) is dominated by under 35 year olds. In this paper, e-sports market is analysed by focusing on the performance of different age-groups. Younger generations play more digital games and dominate e-sports scene, but also older people enjoy playing various video games. Two separate datasets are analysed for testing whether age is a statistically significant explanatory variable for success in professional e-sports tournaments. According to the empirical results, success in e-sports tournaments decreases with the player’s age. The best results are gained when the …

Entrepreneurial choices depend on trust : Some global evidence

Interpersonal trust and people’s trust in institutions are important components of social capital, which has been shown to have not only innate social value but also diverse direct and indirect positive social and economic impacts. Using data for an economically and globally diverse group of countries, we examine empirically how changes in interpersonal trust and trust in institutions affect entrepreneurship over time. Our findings suggest that (1) enhancing either type of trust leads to more entrepreneurial activity and (2) an increase in interpersonal trust causes a structural change in the composition of the TEA-type entrepreneurship. Increased trust reduces the share of relatively lower…

A cultural comparison of mindfulness and student performance: Evidence from university students in five countries

Societal and cultural norms are important in shaping how individuals live, study, and work. Of particular interest in recent research is the role of mindfulness, defined as the ability to focus on the present moment, and how it can impact cognitive function and productivity. This study examines the relationship between scholastic achievement and mindfulness among university students in China, Finland, Germany, South Africa, and the United States. Comparisons between countries with respect to self-reported measures of mindfulness, test anxiety levels, and phone usage are analyzed. These measures are used to determine whether mindfulness affects student performance in introductory economics c…

Sir Thomas More's Utopia : An overlooked economic classic

Sir Thomas More's Utopia, published in 1516, is a classic work of how to organise a society based on common property. With a unique mix of common property, institutions and sound economic insights, we argue that More built a framework for a society that could be viable in the long run. While the conditions that make Utopia work are quite restrictive, it does provide a sketch of a society where common property may not stifle long‐term development, but is associated with productive workers and people content with their lives. peerReviewed

Culture and current account balances

This article contributes to the literature of current account balances by introducing cultural variables that until now have been omitted. The World Values Survey indicates that the Roman Catholics do not consider thrift as important as others. We propose that Catholic countries tend to run current account deficits. This result remains robust even if we control for close to all of the determinants that have been included in previous studies. We find evidence that the inclination of Catholic countries to have high levels of uncertainty avoidance goes to a great length in explaining the result. peerReviewed

Digimaterialismi : virtuaalisten hyödykkeiden kulutusmotiivit

Purchasing motives form a well-analyzed field within the academic scrutiny of marketing and economics. Consumption occurs if purchasing a product provides value for customers. Nowadays an increasing number of commodities exchanged in the market are digital and virtual in nature. Number of people playing online video games continues to grow rapidly around the globe. Fortnite is a free-to-play video game, but players can buy various virtual items, so called “skins”, inside the game. Interestingly, those skins are purely nonfunctional items, which provide no competitive advantage for players. Nevertheless, those items are very popular and game companies generate significant revenues through sa…

Religious Revival Movements and the Development of the Twentieth-century Welfare-state in Finland

The Lutheran state church had a monopoly status in Finland for centuries. But its dominance slowly weakened as pietistic revival movements spread in Finland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These movements had religious purposes, but they were also forerunners of profound social and economic changes in Finland in the twentieth century. In challenging the role of the state church, they challenged national unity, spread Western cultural values, emphasized individual rights, and improved the status of women in society. Men of political eminence, such as Anders Chydenius, introduced these influences on Finnish economic life. Overall, the revival movements helped to pave the way for t…

Economic utopia of the Torah. Economic concepts of the Hebrew Bible interpreted according to the Rabbinical Literature

Hebrew Bible offers alternative Economic utopia for building Theocratic society. In this paper, various economic concepts and themes are presented, as found in the Hebrew Bible. These economic concepts include taxation, property rights, labor market, social policy, banking, years of Sabbath and Jubilee, and business cycles. Most economic issues of the Bible are found in the texts of Torah, also known as five Books of Moses. These texts are analyzed by using classical Rabbinical commentaries for better insight. Contrary to the modern Economic theory which is based on the assumptions of scarcity of resources and unlimited needs of consumers, Economics of the Torah is based on God’s resources …

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