kustannuseroa

Kustannusero is a Finnish economics term describing the difference between the costs associated with two alternatives, such as different production sites, suppliers, regions, or countries. The partitive form kustannuseroa is used when referring to an unspecified portion of such a difference. The concept covers variations in total costs per unit that arise from factors such as wages and salaries, energy prices, raw material costs, taxes and social charges, regulatory burden, financing costs, logistics, and exchange rate movements.

Kustannusero is used to analyse price competitiveness, support outsourcing or location decisions, and explain differences in bids in public procurement. It can be measured as a per-unit cost difference or as a percentage of reference costs, and is often decomposed into components using cost accounting or activity-based costing. Reducing the kustannusero through efficiency improvements or changes in sourcing is a common objective for firms, while persistent differences in cost structures may justify reshoring, nearshoring, or diversification of supply chains.

Linguistic note: the base form is kustannusero; other inflected forms include kustannuseron (genitive) and kustannuseroa (partitive). The term appears in academic literature, industry reports, and policy analyses dealing with competitiveness, regional development, and procurement strategy.