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

  • Tilman Fries

    LMU Munich

    Narratives, Belief Movements, and Economic Fluctuations

    • Behavioral Economics
    • Seminar

  • Tuomas Markkula

    Aalto University

    Tuomas Markkula will defend his thesis Industrial Organization Studies on Mixed Health Care Markets and Waiting Times

    • Aalto University
    • Doctoral Defence

  • Akseli Väliviita

    Aalto University

    Pricing network operating constraints in the European market for electricity

    • Lunch Seminar

  • Kwok Hao Lee

    National University of Singapore Business School

    Distributional effects of vehicle ownership restrictions

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar

  • Marika Viertola

    Aalto University

    Marika Viertola will defend her thesis Essays on corporate income taxation and multinational enterprises

    • Aalto University
    • Doctoral Defence

  • Pedro Carneiro

    UCL

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

    • Economics of Education (Educa)
    • Seminar

  • Prottoy Akbar

    Aalto University

    Drivers of Habit: Evidence of Persistence from Neighborhood Moves

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Julia Wirtz

    University of Bristol

    Optimal Delegated Search with Hidden Information: Screening without Transfers

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Teemu Lyytikäinen

    VATT

    Nominal Loss Aversion in the Housing Market and Household Mobility

    • VATT
    • Seminar

  • Nhi Cao

    Hanken School of Economics

    Persistent effects of colonial rubber plantations

    • Development Economics
    • Brown Bag Seminar

  • Lena Hensvik

    Uppsala University

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Atte Pudas

    Aalto University

    Gender Differences in the Returns and Costs of Patenting

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • PhD Seminar

  • David Myatt

    LBS

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

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Hernán Seoane Bernadaz

    Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

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

    • Macroeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Christoph Huber

    Aalto University

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

    • Behavioral Economics
    • Seminar

  • Miika Päällysaho

    VATT

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

    • Lunch Seminar

  • Amanda Ang

    Aalto University

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

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Catalina Franco

    NHH

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

    • Seminar

  • Nancy Chau

    Cornell University

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

    • Behavioral Economics
    • Seminar

  • Andrea Ichino

    EUI

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

    • Colloquium

  • Ludmila Matyskova

    University of Alicante

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

    • Microeconomics
    • 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

  • Olivia Masi

    Aalto University

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

    • Lunch Seminar

  • Ben Goldman

    Cornell University

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

    • Economics of Education (Educa)
    • Seminar

  • Léo Reitzmann

    PSE and University of Helsinki

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

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Daniel Cunha Byström

    Gothenburg University

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Job Talk

  • Markus Reisinger

    Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

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

    • Industrial Organization
    • Seminar

  • Raissa Fabregas

    University of Texas at Austin

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

    • Development Economics
    • Seminar

  • Erika Povea

    NHH

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Job Talk

  • Adrien Wicht

    University of Basel

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

    • Macroeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Alexander Frug

    UPF

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

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Saara Haikonen

    University of Helsinki

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • PhD Seminar

  • Nicolas Gendron-Carrier

    McGill University

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

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar

  • Giuseppe Sorrenti

    University of Lausanne

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

    • Economics of Education (Educa)
    • Seminar

  • Alexander Clyde

    Aalto University

    Narrow Inference and Incentive Design

    • Industrial Organization
    • Seminar

  • Arttu Kauhanen

    University of Helsinki

    Is Redistribution Fair? The Effect of Taxes and Transfers on the Equality of Opportunity (with Markus Jäntti and Jukka Pirttila)

    • VATT
    • Seminar

  • Yiming Liu

    University of Berlin/WZB Berlin Social Science Center

    Fairness in a Society of Unequal Opportunities

    • Behavioral Economics
    • Seminar

  • Jonathan Zinman

    Dartmouth

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

    • Colloquium

  • Javier Feinman

    PSE

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

    • Development Economics
    • Seminar

  • Simen Markussen

    Frisch Center

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Stefan Ambec

    Toulouse School of Economics

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

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Ellen Sahlström

    Aalto University

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • PhD Seminar

  • Joshua Weiss

    University of Bristol

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

    • Macroeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Piero Gottardi

    University of Essex

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

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Daniel Hauser

    Aalto University

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

    • Lunch Seminar

  • Jakob Vanschoonbeek

    KU Leuven

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

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar

  • Isabel Hovdahl

    NHH

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

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Gianluca Antonecchia

    KU Leuven

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

    • Industrial Organization
    • Seminar

  • Gilat Levy

    LSE

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

    • Colloquium

  • Ana Costa Ramon

    University of Zurich

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • César Barilla

    University of Oxford

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

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Jerry Montonen

    Aalto University

    Shaping Young Minds: The Effects of Teachers on Social Skills

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • PhD Seminar

  • Marta Morazzoni

    UCL

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

    • Macroeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Evan Friedman

    Paris School of Economics

    Deception Aversion

    • Behavioral Economics
    • Seminar

  • Hanna Pesola

    VATT

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

    • VATT
    • Seminar

  • Alina Ozhegova

    Aalto University

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

    • Lunch Seminar

  • Jaqueline Adelowo

    Politecnico di Torino

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

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Julien Grenet

    PSE

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

    • Economics of Education (Educa)
    • Seminar

  • Luise Eisfeld

    University of Lausanne

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

    • Industrial Organization
    • Seminar

  • Xiyu Jiao

    University of Gothenburg

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

    • Econometrics
    • Seminar

  • Kevin Sheedy

    University of Cambridge

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

    • Colloquium

  • Arnaldur Stefanson

    University of Iceland

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Lauri Esala

    University of Edinburgh

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

    • Macroeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Risto Hurmeranta

    University of Helsinki

    Impact of bicycle benefit on car use and emissions

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • PhD Seminar

  • Francesco Vona

    University of Milan and FEEM

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

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Thomas Douenne

    University of Amsterdam

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

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar