Modelling Birch Pulpwood Imports to Finland

Recent increases in pulpwood imports to Finland have raised an intense debate about their possible effects on the domestic wood markets. Since important institutional and structural changes in the market environment have taken place in the markets during the 1990s, it is important to take these into account in modelling imports. Our results consider three different time periods between 1986 and 1998, and indicate that market mechanisms in Finnish birch pulpwood imports have improved substantially in the latter part of the 1990s. Imports are found to be elastic with respect to changes in pulpwood import price, domestic pulpwood price and pulp export price. Furthermore, imports of birch pulpwood seem to have complemented the domestic market rather than to have been a substitute for it.