The project highlights Finland as a solid example of effective and timely policy decisions due to availability of data. The latest report (February 18) provides insight on the latest developments in the labour market and for households and firms.
The objective of the student admissions reform is to streamline the transition to higher education and to improve the allocation of student places. In the monitoring study commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Culture, researchers from the Labour Institute for Economic Research (PT) and the VATT Institute for Economic Research examined whether the reform succeeded in its objectives. The study will be completed in spring 2022. This interim report presents provisional data on the study.
Automatic stabilization and additional support by the government helped to limit economic losses in 2020. The chosen support measures for 2021, including providing financing to fight the corona crisis, are adequate.
Poorer neighbourhoods are under-represented in Finnish municipal councils. This inequality in geographic representation also has policy implications as school closures are less likely in districts with better representation in the municipal council. High-income residents react to school closures by moving away from their neighbourhood. This may further exacerbate differences in geographic representation.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Government Programme outlines a plan to lower the threshold for companies to recruit employees through an experiment on recruitment subsidy. The aim is to support business growth and promote employment. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment commissioned the VATT Institute for Economic Research and Aalto University to draw up a proposal for an experiment on recruitment subsidy that sole entrepreneurs could use to recruit employees.
At the time of the 1970s economic crisis and the 1990s recession alike, unpopular political decisions could only be made once the policy-makers had their backs against the wall, and nothing much appears to have change since those days, says Seppo Leppänen. The long-serving Secretary General of the Economic Council was also heavily involved in VATT around the time of its establishment.
E-prescribing reduces the co-prescribing of harmful drug-combinations. This is according to a new study using comprehensive administrative data and the staggered introduction of a nationwide electronic prescribing system in Finland.
Anni Huhtala has served as Director General at VATT since 2015. During this period research indicators, which put particular emphasis on publication quality, have developed positively. "The Director General's task is to create an enabling framework for doing research," Huhtala describes her role at VATT.
An empirical study published in the Journal of Political Economy finds that VAT cuts are less likely to be passed on to consumer prices than VAT hikes. Following a temporary VAT cut, prices can even be higher than on onset.
06 May 2021
Diego Battiston (University of Edinburg)
10.30 AM - 11.30 AM
22 April 2021
David Seim (Stockholm University)
10.30 AM - 11.30 AM
15 April 2021
Aspasia Bizopoulou (VATT)
10.30 AM - 11.30 AM
11 March 2021
Benjamin Schoefer (UC Berkeley)
10.30 AM - 11.30 AM
04 March 2021
Matteo Sandi (CEP/LSE)
10.30 AM - 11.30 AM
Please register
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