Fredriika Jakola

I am a human geographer with a specialization in the fields of regional development and border studies. Currently I study the relationship between regional differentation and inclusion of municipalities in European Union's Structural Funds (European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund) in the context of Finland.

In my PhD research I studied how the local institutional conditions (formal and informal institutions) affect policy transfer processes and regional development paths in the context of Finnish-Swedish border municipalities. In my research I've been particularly interested in the role of "unwritten" informal institutions (norms, customs, habits, identity) in political-economic processes. Theoretically my research draws mainly from institutional economic geography, geographical political economy, cross-border studies, and policy transfer literature.