Tuulia Hakola-Uusitalo appointed as the Research Director at VATT
Tuulia Hakola-Uusitalo has been appointed to the post of a chief researcher at VATT Institute for Economic Research. Concurrently, she is also nominated to the post of the Research Director for the next five years from the April 1st 2024.
Doctor of Social Sciences Tuulia Hakola-Uusitalo has been appointed to the position of a chief researcher at VATT Institute for Economic Research from the 1st of April 2024. In addition, she has been nominated to the post of the VATT Research Director for the next five years. She has held this position temporarily since October 2023.
Research Director Hakola-Uusitalo is responsible for the operation and development of VATT’s research unit which employs 40 researchers.
"It’s great to continue this work with the VATT community. With this appointment, I have been given the chance to develop VATT research which carries huge weight in Finland and has a delightful impact also internationally. We have very talented and ambitious researchers who are passionate about their work. We want that our research is of good academic standard, and can stand all kind of criticism," says Tuulia Hakola-Uusitalo.
Hakola-Uusitalo has a long career as an economist and a government official. She has also held versatile managerial roles. She earned her degree as a Doctor of Philosophy in social sciences at the University of Helsinki in 2002. Her dissertation focused on the impact of financial incentives on retirement.
For most of her career, Hakola-Uusitalo has worked on improving the research-based Finnish impact assessment. Before her current position, Hakola-Uusitalo worked as the Research Director at the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (2019–2023), as the Head of the Structural Policy Unit at the Ministry of Finance (2007–2019) and as the Chief Economist at the Finnish Centre for Pensions (2003–2007). She has also previously worked at VATT as a researcher (1998–2001).
VATT's research is empirical micro, and uses extensive datasets, specially of the Statistics Finland. The research mainly evaluates previously implemented structural reforms.
According to Hakola-Uusitalo, VATT has traditionally been strong in assessing reforms that are related to taxation, social security and labour market.
"The economy sets the background for all public sector activities – and, to some extent, also to the ones of the private sector. The themes studied by the VATT researchers are of the kind that produce valuable information for structural policy decision making. In addition, our research results are of interest to the general public. There are questions like, what is the impact of cutting certain social benefits, what happens if the fuel or the alcohol taxation is changed, or so forth. In my work I would specially like to ensure that VATT research results are put to optimal use and help us on the path to knowledge-based decision-making, and, consequently, a better society," says Hakola-Uusitalo.
Currently, VATT has five research themes: public services and local public finances; energy, climate and environmental policy; business taxation and regulation; labour market and education; and social security, taxation and inequality.
In addition to her work as the Research Director, Hakola-Uusitalo intends to continue her own research.
"In terms of research, I like everything that is credibly done and focuses on issues that are of importance for our society. Recently, I have used my time also on more macro-oriented questions. Specially, the Covid-19 period was a tremendously interesting in terms of economic policy."
Inquiries:
Tuulia Hakola-Uusitalo
Research Director
[email protected]
+358 295 519 501
Anne Moilanen
Director of Communications (substitute)
[email protected]
+358 50 5020155
Tuulia Hakola-Uusitalo
Appointments at VATT
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