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

  • Alessandro Pizzigolotto

    University of Copenhagen

    Volcanic Protests (with Jaakko Meriläinen, Matti Mitrunen, Arash Nekoei and Jósef Sigurdsson)

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Lassi Ahlvik

    University of Helsinki

    Quantifying supply-side climate policies

    • Aalto University
    • Job Talk

  • 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.

    • Behavioral Economics
    • Brown Bag Seminar

  • Ferenc Szucs

    Stockholm University

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

    • Colloquium

  • Ville Voutilainen

    Ville Voutilainen will defend his thesis Essays on Central Banking with Microdata

    • University of Helsinki
    • Doctoral Defence

  • 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.

    • Behavioral Economics
    • 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

  • Giorgio Pietrobissa

    LSE

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

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar

  • Denvil Duncan

    Indiana University

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

    • Labor & Public 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 Division of Surplus and the Burden of Proof (joint with Deniz Kattwinkel)

    • 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