Mining the North: Local impacts

Abstract In this paper, we study how mine openings change local societies in the Nordic countries. Our study is based on register data at the municipality level from Norway, Sweden, and Finland. We document that a mine opening increases employment in the municipality where the mine is located and that the demand shock has a direct effect on the mining sector and propagates to other industries. Our results also reveal that mine openings increase the population, both in the municipality where the mine is located and in the surrounding region. Finally, we document that a mine opening increases the male share of the population of the municipalities, gives it a more pronounced U-shaped age profile, and that all education groups increase in size; the numbers, however, are larger for people with lower-level educations.