VATT Researcher Maarit Olkkola Receives the Väinö Kannisto Recognition Award
The Family Federation of Finland has granted the 2025 Väinö Kannisto Recognition Award to VATT Senior Researcher, DSc (Econ) Maarit Olkkola.
The biennial award is given for an outstanding thesis in the field of demography. Maarit Olkkola’s doctoral dissertation examines the introduction of public child health services in Finland as well as a mass vaccination campaign against measles in the United States, focusing on their long-term impacts on child mortality and human capital development.
Olkkola’s research shows that the establishment of universal child health centres in rural Finland in the 1940s significantly reduced child mortality and contributed to higher educational attainment and income later in life. The findings provide new evidence on the mortality transition among children older than infants—an age group for which little prior research exists in the Nordic context. The results also demonstrate how early-life public health investments can shape human capital formation across generations.
Another part of the dissertation analyses the first nationwide mass measles vaccination campaign in the United States in 1967–1968. The study finds that the sharp reduction in measles exposure increased educational attainment in affected cohorts. It is the first research to document positive effects on educational attainment from the measles vaccine.
Olkkola’s dissertation draws on exceptionally comprehensive historical and register-based datasets, enabling precise comparisons across municipalities and birth cohorts. These data include detailed information on the timing of child health centre establishment, local health personnel in the 1940s, and long-term educational and income records. The richness of the data makes it possible to examine the long-run consequences of early-life policy interventions—an especially important perspective when evaluating policies targeted at children.
The Väinö Kannisto Recognition Award was presented at the seminar of the Finnish Demographic Society on 7 November 2025.
Further information: Senior Researcher, Maarit Olkkola, VATT, [email protected]
Olkkola, M. (2025). Essays on Health Policy and Human Capital (Doctoral dissertation, Aalto University, School of Business). Aalto University Publications Series Doctoral Theses, 4/2025.
Maarit Olkkola
Education
Healthcare services
News
Uutiset ja tiedotteet
