For students:

Public Economics

  • What is the right level of tax progression?
  • What are the consequences of basic income?
  • How should universities be financed?
  • What is the right way to support poor people?
  • How should the pension system be financed?
Data visualization

Public economics provides a framework for thinking about the planner’s or the government’s intervention to the market. To this end, microeconomic models are used to assess how various market failures, inefficiencies, and inequalities can be corrected.

Much of modern public economics is related to inequality. The market economy does not necessarily produce a socially desirable distribution of income, and government intervention is again needed. Public economics research can inform policy discussion about the impacts of inequalities, how effective public policies are in reducing them, and how policymakers can address possible tradeoffs between economic efficiency and distributional equity.

At the core of public economic analysis are various policy measures, including taxes, provision of public goods, and regulatory actions. Research in contemporary public economics is increasingly empirical.  Impact evaluation methods and sufficient statistics approaches are used to attempt to credibly estimate the impact of policy instruments and reforms on taxpayer and individual behavior.

For Master's students interested in these topics, here is a list of recommended courses.

University of Helsinki and VATT Institute for Economic Research are part of the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Tax Systems Research, led by Professor Kaisa Kotakorpi of Tampere University.

Chair

  • Jukka Pirttilä

    Deputy Academic Director of Helsinki GSE, Professor @ University of Helsinki

Members

PhD Students

  • Francesco Vona

    University of Milan and FEEM

    The impact of the European Emission Trading Schemes on career and earnings trajectories of Italian workers: it is all about the rents, no troubles!

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Nagore Iriberri

    University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

    Women in Editorial Boards: An Investigation of Female Representation in Top Economic Journals (with Patricia Funk and Nicole Venus)

    • Economics of Education (Educa)
    • Seminar

  • Mateus Mysliwski

    NHH

    Dynamics of Advertising on the Open Web: RTB vs PMP (with Simeon Duckworth and Lars Nesheim)

    • Industrial Organization
    • Seminar

  • Selina Clarke

    University of Helsinki

    The environmental effects of historical mining

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • PhD Seminar

  • Jonas Cederlöf

    IFAU Uppsala

    Duration Dependence and Job Search over the Spell: Evidence from Job Seeker Activity Reports (with Sara Roman)

    • VATT
    • Seminar

  • Rachel Ngai

    LSE

    Sowing Seeds of Mobility: The Uneven Impact of Land Reform (with Ting Chen, Jiajia Gu and Jin Wang)

    • Colloquium

  • Aspasia Bizopoulou

    VATT

    Anti-Discrimination Laws and the Careers of Women

    • Lunch Seminar

  • Amit Dekel

    Aix-Marseille School of Economics

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • CEPR VIOS SEMINAR

    Hester Zhang (IESE)

    Broadcasting of an online seminar: Economies of Density and Congestion in Capital Rental Markets

    • Industrial Organization
    • CEPR VIOS Seminar

  • Joakim Wikström

    VATT

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • VATT
    • Seminar

  • Marja-Liisa Halko & Daniel Carvajal

    University of Helsinki and Aalto University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Brown Bag Seminar

  • Laura Khoury

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Laura Khoury

    Paris Dauphine-PSL University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Sander Ramboer

    VATT

    Local Property Tax Incentives for Wind Farm Development

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Nicolas Schutz

    University of Mannheim

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Industrial Organization
    • Seminar

  • Nicolas de Roos

    University of Liverpool

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Colloquium

  • Julia Salmi

    Hanken

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Lunch Seminar

  • Alessandro Pizzigolotto

    University of Copenhagen

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • CEPR VIOS SEMINAR

    Emilio Calvano (LUISS and CEPR)

    Broadcasting of an online seminar: Artificial Intelligence, Recommender Systems and Competition

    • Industrial Organization
    • CEPR VIOS Seminar

  • Daniel Hauser & Daniel Peredo Siles

    Aalto University and Hanken School of Economics

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Brown Bag Seminar

  • Ferenc Szucs

    Stockholm University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Colloquium

  • Mikko Silliman

    Aalto University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Lunch Seminar

  • Jakob Beuschlein

    Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin) / the Berlin School of Economics / Humboldt University of Berlin

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • CEPR VIOS SEMINAR

    Yangkeun Yu (UCLA)

    Broadcasting of an online seminar: Navigating the Commons

    • Industrial Organization
    • CEPR VIOS Seminar

  • Ossi Tahvonen

    University of Helsinki

    Long-term effects of a youth cash transfer

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • PhD Seminar

  • Alina Ozhegova

    Aalto University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Lunch Seminar

  • Mikko Silliman

    Aalto University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar

  • Juanna Schrøter Joensen

    University of Chicago

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Economics of Education (Educa)
    • Seminar

  • Thomas Douenne

    University of Amsterdam

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Pauline Vorjohann

    University of Exeter

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Behavioral Economics
    • Seminar

  • Xinrong Zhu

    Imperial College London Business School

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Industrial Organization
    • Seminar

  • Anne Brockmeyer

    World Bank

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • VATT
    • Seminar

  • Sakari Saaritsa

    University of Helsinki

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Colloquium

  • Viola Asri

    CMI

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Development Economics
    • Seminar

  • Matias Giaccobasso

    VATT

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Andreas Asseyer

    Freie Universität Berlin

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • CEPR VIOS SEMINAR

    Daniel Waldinger (NYU)

    Broadcasting of an online seminar: Nonpayment and Eviction in the Rental Housing Market

    • Industrial Organization
    • CEPR VIOS Seminar

  • Ellen Sahlström

    Aalto University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • PhD Seminar

  • Sara Bagagli

    LSE

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar

  • Stefano Lombardi

    VATT

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Lunch Seminar

  • Pia Nilsson

    University of Helsinki

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Dirk Czarnitzki

    KU Leuven

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Industrial Organization
    • Seminar

  • Juho Junttila

    University of Helsinki

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • PhD Seminar

  • Juho Nuutinen & Lauri Sääksvuori

    Hanken School of Business and Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL)

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Brown Bag Seminar

  • Luca Braghieri

    Bocconi University

    Behavioral and Information Frictions in News Consumption: Evidence from Social Media

    • Colloquium

  • David Jaeger

    University of St Andrews

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • CEPR VIOS SEMINAR

    Jana Gieselmann (University of Edinburgh)

    Broadcasting of an online seminar: (Mis-)Matchmakers

    • Industrial Organization
    • CEPR VIOS Seminar

  • James Best

    Carnegie Mellon University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Atte Pudas

    Aalto University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Lunch Seminar

  • Denvil Duncan

    Indiana University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Giorgio Pietrobissa

    LSE

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar

  • Ludovica Gazze

    University of Warwick

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Salvatore Piccolo

    University of Bergamo

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Industrial Organization
    • Seminar

  • Ola Andersson

    Uppsala University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Behavioral Economics
    • Seminar

  • Eric Taylor

    Harvard University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Colloquium

  • Justine Knebelmann

    Sciences Po

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Development Economics
    • Seminar

  • Davide Cipullo

    Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Justus Preusser

    Bocconi University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Martin Vaeth

    Paris School of Economics

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Pau Roldan-Blanco

    Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Macroeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Florian Oswald

    University of Turin

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar

  • Gabrielle Fack

    Dauphine University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Economics of Education (Educa)
    • Seminar

  • Milena Almagro

    Chicago Booth

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Colloquium

  • Martino Banchio

    Bocconi University

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Christian Brownlees

    The content of this event has not been announced yet. Please check back later.

    • Econometrics