This article seeks empirical evidence of how the Finnish electricity distribution companies have responded to regulatory incentives in the rate of return regulation. The effects of regulation on company behaviour were studied by a questionnaire and interview survey. After more than ten years of...

A forecasting methodology for prediction of both normal prices and price spikes in the day-ahead energy market is proposed. The method is based on an iterative strategy implemented as a combination of two modules separately applied for normal price and price spike predictions. The normal price...

Pension prefunding can be used to smooth contribution rates in economies where ageing will increase pension expenditure. But how extensive should prefunding be in a defined benefit pension system when there is considerable uncertainty concerning future mortality, fertility, and migration? We...

The share of singles has been increasing. Studies show that singles on average use more health and long-term care services than couples. How large a burden is the change in household structures likely to create for public finances in a welfare state? We decompose per capita health and long-term...

This study analyses the adjustment of the Finnish earnings-related pension system to very low economic growth. The results show that a permanently lower growth rate of the wage bill would raise only moderately the pension contribution rates in the long term. This is because also the benefits are...

The essays in this collection approach taxation as a group of policy instruments, and study how their use is connected to and affected by wage formation in the economy. In the first essay taxation acts as an automatic stabiliser in the face of different shocks. The study combines two theoretical...