The development of education intensity in Finnish industry and foreign trade
The study examines structural change in industry in Finland and Sweden over recent decades.
In both countries, the share of industry has contracted and the service sector has grown. Finland performed well in structural change: in the 1980s, R&D investment doubled, high-technology exports nearly tripled, and productivity growth exceeded that of comparable Western countries. Finland shifted from labour-intensive production towards more education- and technology-intensive sectors — a transformation that was the strongest among the countries compared.
In Sweden, developments were more contradictory. Some studies point to a weakening of comparative advantage in capital- and knowledge-intensive sectors, while an EU integration analysis gave a more positive picture of competitiveness trends.
The aim of the study is to deepen the picture of structural change in Finnish industry by examining the entire manufacturing sector from the perspective of education intensity, drawing directly on the actual educational composition of industries rather than relying solely on sectoral classification. (AI translation)
- ISSN: 1236-7176
- ISBN: 951-9282-78-5
