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

  • Max Toikka

    Aalto University

    Labor Market Effects of Public-Private Sector Competition in Health and Social Services

    • VATT
    • Seminar

  • Jerry Montonen

    Aalto University

    Shaping Young Minds: The Effects of Teachers on Socio-Emotional Skills

    • Practice Job Talk

  • Nicolas Gendron-Carrier

    McGill University

    Residential Human Capital and Economic Spillovers (with Nathaniel Baum-Snow and Ronni Pavan)

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar

  • Giuseppe Sorrenti

    University of Lausanne

    Talent is Everywhere, Opportunity is Not: Online Role Model Mentoring and Students’ Aspirations

    • Economics of Education (Educa)
    • Seminar

  • Jussipekka Salo

    University of Helsinki

    Learning About the Macroeconomy Through Mortgages: Evidence from Natural Experiment

    • Practice Job Talk

  • 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

  • Laura Contreras-Portela and Natalia Labrador Bernate

    Aix-Marseille School of Economics & UNU-WIDER

    The Unintended Consequences of Place-Based Industrial Policies: Evidence from Colombia AND Gender, Weather Shocks, and Labor Supply Decisions: …

    • Development Economics
    • Brown Bag Seminar

  • Milla Hägg

    University of Helsinki

    History Dependence and Firm Incentives in Free Contraception Programs

    • Industrial Organization
    • PhD 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

  • CEPR VIOS SEMINAR

    Marit Hinnosaar (University of Nottingham, CEPR)

    Broadcasting of an online seminar: Influencer cartels

    • 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

  • 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

  • Maija Kaartinen

    IIES

    Carbon Pricing and Fuel Switching by Firms:Theory and Evidence (with Ossian Prane)

    • Macroeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Gilat Levy

    LSE

    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

  • Ana Costa Ramon

    University of Zurich

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • CEPR VIOS SEMINAR

    Jiekai Zhang (University of Southampton)

    Broadcasting of an online seminar: Enviromental impacts of banning vehicle advertising

    • Industrial Organization
    • CEPR VIOS 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

  • Joosua Virtanen

    Hanken School of Economics

    Joosua Virtanen will defend his thesis Essays on microeconomic prediction problems: with applications to firm growth and public procurement

    • Hanken
    • Doctoral Defence

  • 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

  • Milla Hägg

    University of Helsinki

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

    • Practice Job Talk

  • Alina Ozhegova

    Aalto University

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

    • Lunch Seminar

  • Majken Stenberg

    Uppsala University

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

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • 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

    Social Diversity at School: Evidence from a French Desegregation Experiment (with Ghazala Azmat, Élise Huillery, Youssef Souidi, and Yann Algan)

    • 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

  • CEPR VIOS SEMINAR

    Amanda Starc (Northwestern)

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

    • Industrial Organization
    • CEPR VIOS 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

  • Mikael Mäkimattila

    Aalto University

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

    • Practice Job Talk

  • 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

  • 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

  • Dirk Czarnitzki

    KU Leuven

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

    • Industrial Organization
    • Seminar

  • Thomas Douenne

    University of Amsterdam

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

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar