Root causes of rural decline in economic well-being in Finland

Lehtonen Olli, Tykkyläinen Markku and Voutilainen Olli
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Lehtonen Olli: Olli Lehtonen, Finland Department of Geographical and Historical Studies, University of Eastern, P.O. Box 111 80101 Joensuu
Tykkyläinen Markku: Finland Department of Geographical and Historical Studies, Markku Tykkyläinen University of Eastern, P.O. Box 111 80101 Joensuu
Voutilainen Olli: Olli Voutilainen MTT Economic Research Agrifood Research Finland Helsinki

European Countryside, 2012, vol. 4, issue 3, 217-239

Abstract: This paper analyses how dependence on primary production, distance, climatic conditions and the intensity of land use bring about variations in economic well-being in rural areas. The conventional interpretation in Finland often concludes that economic well-being declines as dependence on primary production increases. The potential oversimplification implied by this statement was studied by testing the explanatory power of distance from the nearest large city, effective temperature sum and the proportion of fields in a comparative setting. The results revealed that economic well-being in rural Finland is best explained by the effective temperature sum, followed by distance, dependence on primary production and the proportion of fields. The only element of well-being which is determined chiefly by dependence on primary production is educational capital, causing a bottleneck preventing rural areas from becoming competitive and hence attractive to new knowledge-intensive industries. These results cast light on the spatial conditions under which the current economic evolution towards a service and knowledge society is taking place and on the spatial manifestations of remnant economic structures in disadvantageous locations.

Keywords: Well-being; rural development; quantitative methods; Finland; Well-being; rural development; quantitative methods; Finland; Hyvinvointi; maaseudun kehitys; kvantitatiiviset menetelmät; Suomi (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:eurcou:v:4:y:2012:i:3:p:217-239:n:4

DOI: 10.2478/v10091-012-0025-4

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