Latest news and press releases

To celebrate VATT’s 30th anniversary we are publishing a series of texts presenting our core fields of research. In this third part of the series, we are focusing on our research in energy and climate policy.

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 th...

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 ...

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.

Juhana Vartiainen was working in Sweden as a civil servant, before he became the director general of VATT. He returned to Finland, because he felt it was his duty to alert Finns of the dangers of the widening sustainability gap. “The same way doctors defend vaccinations, economists must be ready ...

To celebrate VATT’s 30th anniversary we are publishing a series of texts presenting our core fields of research. In this second part of the series, we are focusing on our research into housing subsidies and taxes.

The requirement to wear face masks reduced people's mobility somewhat in the short term, whereas over a longer time period, the policy did not affect mobility. This is the finding of a recent study on the impacts of compulsory face mask policies on community mobility in Germany.

Job displacement because of a plant closure substantially increases the mortality risk of the displaced workers and their partners. This is the conclusion presented in a recent study on employees laid off during the 1990s recession and their families.

Longer patent durations are an inefficient way to promote the development of new drugs, since it also increases incentives for challenging patents, a new study finds. The results suggest that pharmaceutical patents should be made shorter, but broader.

Aki Kangasharju worked as a research director at VATT for ten years in the 2000s and for a year as the director general. “The most important thing about leading a research institute is finding a good balance between scientific credibility, supporting political decision-making and participating in...

The employment effects of the basic income experiment were small and their interpretation is complicated by the introduction of the activation model in 2018. The evaluation of employment effects of the experiment was carried out by VATT.

We regret to announce we must postpone the Helsinki Economics of Crime Workshop to Summer 2021. We will announce details for next year's event as soon as possible.

To celebrate VATT’s 30th anniversary we are publishing a series of texts presenting our core fields of research. The first field to be presented is Education Research.

During Seija Ilmakunnas’ term as director general VATT transformed into an academic research institute. “Sound economic policy advice and good policy preparation can only be based on quality research”, she sums up the need for the transformation.