In an open letter to Finnish audience, distinguished American tax economist professor Joel Slemrod commends the quality of Finnish research in public finance and research collaboration with Finnish authorities.

Renewable energy subsidies are a major expenditure item in the Finnish state budget. But a change is now in the offing: the state will soon ask electricity producers to place bids, and the subsidies are allocated in a competitive tendering process, Anni Huhtala writes.

If the relationship between the environment and economy is problematic, euphemisms will not make a difference, Anni Huhtala writes.

Can natural resources end up being a curse on a country’s economic development? Economists have pondered this long and hard.

There is little point in considering its abolition of inheritance tax unless you suggest how the capital gains taxation should then be reformed, Essi Eerola writes.

Anna Sahari writes that subsidizing the price of fuel efficient cars increases their demand. Yet, the reduction in emissions is modest, as subsidies do not transfer preferences from large cars to smaller ones.

The best mission for innovation policy might well be investments in basic education and research, Tuomas Takalo and Otto Toivanen argue.

Climate change is the most severe environmental problem possible, and the international community is struggling with the necessity of avoiding the damage, Anni Huhtala writes.

The impact of business subsidies must be assessed through the analysis of firm-level data that is extensive enough, writes Anni Huhtala. This allows us to discover which part of the impact is the result of the subsidising and which part derives from something else. Anecdotal evidence is not enough.

The top income tax rate for earned income is not high enough in Finland that it would produce higher tax revenue if it was lowered, Kaisa Kotakorpi and Tuomas Matikka write in our blog.