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

  • Arnaldur Stefanson

    University of Iceland

    Labor Supply Response to a Tax Holiday: The Take-Home from a Large and Salient Shock

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Broadcasting: CEPR VIOS SEMINAR

    Amanda Starc (Northwestern)

    Broadcasting of an online seminar: Painful Bargaining: Evidence from Anesthesia Rollups

    • Industrial Organization
    • CEPR VIOS Seminar

  • William Odgen

    Aalto University

    Estimating Transaction Frictions in Car Choice

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Lauri Esala

    University of Edinburgh

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

    • Macroeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Camilla Christensen

    University of Copenhagen, CEBI and CenTax

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Tuuli Tähtinen

    IFO

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Tuomas Kaariaho

    University of Helsinki

    Firm responses to the energy crisis

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Toan Le

    University of Oxford

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

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Jacob Moscona

    MIT

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

    • Colloquium

  • Dionissi Aliprantis

    École Normale Supérieure (ENS) de Lyon

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

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar

  • Giacomo Brusco

    University of Tübingen

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • 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

  • Nagore Iriberri

    University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

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

    • Economics of Education (Educa)
    • Seminar

  • Mateus Mysliwski

    NHH

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

    • Industrial Organization
    • Seminar

  • Rachel Ngai

    LSE

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

    • Colloquium

  • Marta Santamaria

    University of Warwick

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

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar

  • Laura Khoury

    Paris Dauphine-PSL University

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

    • Economics of Education (Educa)
    • Seminar

  • Amit Dekel

    Aix-Marseille School of Economics

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

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Laura Khoury

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

    • Labor & Public 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

  • Alessandro Pizzigolotto

    University of Copenhagen

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • 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

  • Mikko Silliman

    Aalto University

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

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar

  • Thomas Douenne

    University of Amsterdam

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

    • Environmental 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

  • Viola Asri

    CMI

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

    • Development Economics
    • Seminar

  • Andreas Asseyer

    Freie Universität Berlin

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

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Sara Bagagli

    LSE

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

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • 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

  • 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