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.

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

  • Amma Panin

    KU Leuven

    Cognitive consequences of insecure national belonging (with Ritwik Banerjee, Joseph Gomes, and Emmy Lindstam)

    • Development Economics
    • Seminar

  • Marko Terviö

    Aalto University

    Underachievement in Cognitive Tests: Evidence from Finnish Military Conscripts

    • Lunch Seminar

  • José Montalban Castilla

    SOFI – Stockholm University

    How Does Class Size Shape the Classroom Learning Environment and Affect Student Outcomes?

    • Economics of Education (Educa)
    • Seminar

  • CEPR VIOS Seminar

    Stephan Lauermann (University of Bonn and CEPR)

    Recruiting Bidders

    • Industrial Organization
    • CEPR VIOS Seminar

  • Jerry Montonen

    Aalto University

    Shaping Young Minds: The Effects of Teachers on Social Skills

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • PhD Seminar

  • Jens Wikström

    Gothenburg University

    Should eldercare be subsidized? Theory and evidence from Sweden (with Patrizia Massner)

    • VATT
    • Seminar

  • Johanna Wallenius

    Stockholm School of Economics

    Does Student Aid Improve Educational Mobility? (with Frederik Bjørn Christensen)

    • Colloquium

  • Dean Yang

    University of Michigan

    Ancient Epics in the Television Age: Mass Media, Identity, and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism in India

    • Development Economics
    • Seminar

  • Helena Rantakaulio

    Aalto University

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

    • Industrial Organization
    • PhD Seminar

  • Nadja Dwenger

    University of Hohenheim

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Atte Kaljonen

    Aalto-yliopisto

    TBA

    • Industrial Organization
    • Reading Group

  • Joao Montez

    HEC Lausanne

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

    • Industrial Organization
    • Seminar

  • Tuuli Sen and Martín Brun

    Sen: TAU/PTT and Brun: TAU/FIT

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

    • Behavioral Economics
    • Brown Bag Seminar

  • Monika Mrazova

    University of Geneva

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

    • Colloquium

  • Christina Felfe

    University of Konstanz

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

    • Economics of Education (Educa)
    • Seminar

  • Salomo Hirvonen

    University of Turku

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

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Ludvig Sinander

    University of Oxford

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

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Satu Suonto

    University of Helsinki / VATT

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • PhD Seminar

  • Toomas Hinnosaar

    University of Nottingham

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

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Tuomas Kosonen

    VATT

    Optimization Errors in Taxes

    • Behavioral Economics
    • Seminar

  • Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal

    University of Barcelona

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

    • Trade, Regional and Urban Economics
    • Seminar

  • Hung Le

    Aalto University

    TBA

    • Industrial Organization
    • PhD Seminar

  • Kitt Carpenter

    Vanderbilt

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Ylva Moberg

    SOFI

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Ritwik Banerjee

    Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

    Interpreting Intolerance (with Lata Gangadharan and Marie Claire Villeval)

    • Seminar

  • Albert Duodu

    Aalto University

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

    • Environmental Economics
    • Seminar

  • Andreas Kleiner

    University of Bonn

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

    • Microeconomics
    • Seminar

  • Rasmus Mellanen

    University of Helsinki

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • PhD Seminar

  • Alejandro Zentner

    UT Dallas

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

    • VATT
    • Seminar

  • Georgy Egorov

    Northwestern University

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

    • Colloquium

  • Andrea Pozzi

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

    • Industrial Organization
    • Seminar

  • Zach Y. Brown

    University of Michigan

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

    • Colloquium

  • Eric Zwick

    University of Chicago Booth School of Business and NBER

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

    • Labor & Public Economics
    • Seminar

  • Ben Goldman

    Cornell University

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

    • Economics of Education (Educa)
    • Seminar