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Abstract
Traditionally, people are believed to follow jobs; however, a contradictory view that jobs
follow people has also gained popularity. In this study, two methods are used to analyze regional
growth processes in Finland between 1990 and 2010, and the results are compared with
the findings obtained elsewhere. In accordance with the results from many countries, the conventional
regional adjustment model shows that people have largely followed jobs in Finland,
i.e., that regional growth is demand induced. A closer examination suggests, however, that
highly educated people drive regional change in Finland and that economic fluctuations also
have an effect. Another approach, based on the Granger causality method in a panel framework,
reveals heterogeneity among regions, implying that regional growth is particularly supply
induced for large and dynamic city regions. These results confirm expectations of complicated
regional growth processes and the hypothesis that population and employment growth
drive one another.