Can large-scale RDI funding stimulate post-crisis recovery growth? Evidence for Finland during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent public health restrictions led to a significant slump in economic activities around the globe. This slump has been met by various policy actions to cushion the detrimental socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis and eventually bring the economy back on track. We provide an ex-ante evaluation of the effectiveness of a massive expansion of RDI funding in Finland to stimulate post-crisis recovery growth through an increase in RDI activities of Finnish firms. We make use of the fact that novel RDI grants for firms in disruptive circumstances granted in 2020 were allocated through established RDI policy channels. This allows us to estimate the structural link between RDI funding and economic growth for Finnish NUTS-3 regions based on pre-COVID-19 data. Estimates are then used to predict regional recovery growth out of sample and to quantify the growth contribution of RDI funding. Depending on the chosen scenario, our out-of-sample predictions point to a mean recovery growth rate of GDP between ~2-4 % in 2021 after a decline of up to -2.5 % in 2020. RDI funding constitutes a significant pillar of the recovery process with mean contributions in terms of GDP growth of between 0.4 and 1 %-points.

Chinese tourists in Nordic countries: An analysis of spatio-temporal behavior using geo-located travel blog data.

Geo-located travel blogs, a new data source, enable to achieve more detailed analysis of tourists' spatio-temporal behavior. Taking Chinese tourists in Nordic countries as the research object, this paper focuses on their behavior, seasonal patterns and complex network effects by using geo-located travel blog data collected from Qunar.com. The results show that: (1) Chinese tourists visiting Nordic countries are often experienced in traveling. The local climate during the cold season does not prevent them from pursuing the aurora scenery. (2) The travel behavior of Chinese tourists is spatially heterogeneous. The network analysis reveals that Iceland showcases stronger, compared to the other Nordic countries, community independence and small world effect. (3) During the warm season, Chinese tourists choose a variety of destinations, while in cold season, they tend to choose destinations with higher chances for spotting the northern lights. These results provide helpful information for the tourism management departments of Nordic countries to improve their marketing and development efforts directed for Chinese tourists.

Scientific collaboration between 'old' and 'new' member states: Did joining the European Union make a difference?

This paper provides new insights on the effects of the enlargement of the European Union (EU) and European integration by investigating the issue of scientific collaboration within the new EU member states vis-à-vis the old EU member states. The question addressed is whether the EU membership following the two enlargement waves 2004 and 2007 has significantly increased the co-publication intensity of the new member states with other member countries. The empirical results based on data collected from the Web of Science database and Difference-in-Difference estimations point towards a conclusion that joining the EU indeed has had an additional positive impact on the co-publication intensity between the new and old member states and, in particular, within the new member states themselves. These results give tentative support for the successfulness of the EU's science policies in achieving a common 'internal market' in research. We also find evidence for early anticipation effects of the consecutive EU accession.