Marita Laukkanen

Marita Laukkanen is a Research Professor at the VATT Institute for Economic Research and Professor of Practice in Economics at Tampere University. She is also affiliated with the Finnish Center of Excellence in Tax Systems Research. Her work explores the effectiveness and equity of climate policy, as well as the broader economic and societal implications of the clean transition.

She has studied carbon pricing and other climate policies in the transport and manufacturing sectors, examining questions such as the pass-through of fuel carbon taxes, the impacts of vehicle replacement subsidies on vehicle purchases and emissions, and the effects of energy and carbon taxes on emissions and business activity in manufacturing. Marita is also interested in the adoption of new technologies — what drives their diffusion, and what gets in the way. Her current research explores the adoption of electric vehicles, the health, education, and labor market impacts of air pollution, and the effects of corporate sustainability regulation.

Marita collaborates on interdisciplinary projects with researchers from diverse fields working on energy and climate-related questions, and is part of the 2035Legitimacy and Phoenix consortia, both funded by the Strategic Research Council within the Research Council of Finland. From 2016 to 2019, she served as a member of the Finnish Climate Change Panel, an expert body appointed by the government to promote dialogue between science and policy on climate-related issues.

Marita holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.