About
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Economics at the University of Turku. My research interests include macroeconomics, economic growth and firm dynamics.
My CV
Email: eeanma@utu.fi
Working Papers
Economic Growth through Worker Reallocation: The Role of Knowledge Spillovers
Abstract
I explore the role of knowledge diffusion among producers as a driver of productivity growth. By estimating a reduced form model with Finnish employer-employee data, I find evidence that employing workers from more efficient establishments enhances productivity. To understand the aggregate impact of the finding, I develop an endogenous growth model that incorporates the transmission of knowledge through worker reallocation. The calibrated model reveals that knowledge spillovers can increase aggregate productivity growth by 0.35 percentage points and significantly impact output. Moreover, I establish that this mechanism can exacerbate the adverse impact of firing costs on aggregate outcomes.
Uncertainty, Misallocation and the Life-cycle Growth of Firms
with Oskari Vähämaa
Abstract
We develop a measure of static misallocation that separates uncertainty from misallocation generated by tax-like distortions. In the Finnish firm-level data, uncertainty accounts for the majority of ex post misallocation and explains a strong decreasing age-dependent trend in it. To understand these observations, we set up a life-cycle model of firm growth where new firms have to learn their productivity. We match our model with the salient features of the data and show that our model implies idiosyncratic distortions, in line with our accounting approach. According to our quantitative results, uncertainty suppresses output by 38%, while misallocation has a 26% negative effect on output.