Janne Tukiainen

Associate Research Professor, PhD (Econ.)

Municipalities and wellbeing services counties

Janne Tukiainen is a professor of economics at the University of Turku, an associate research professor at the VATT Institute for Economic Research, and an adjunct professor (docent) of economics at the University of Helsinki. Previously he has been a visiting professor at the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE, 3 years). Janne has also worked at the University of Helsinki and HECER. He has visited the Bank of Finland and several foreign universities (ECARES, LSE, Warwick, KCL, ETH Zurich). Janne is a ZEW, CESifo and Helsinki GSE affiliate. He received the ERC consolidator grant (2023-2027) for his INTRAPOL-project.

He gained his doctorate in economics at the University of Helsinki in 2009. Tukiainen’s thesis concerned industrial economics, in particular, auctions and public procurement. In recent years, he has focused on public and political economics, and political science. For example, he has studied the economic and political effects of municipal mergers, voting behaviour and its consequences. Currently, his key areas of interest include political selection and election systems, as well as public procurement. Janne has published scientific work in the fields of industrial economics, public economics, microeconometrics and political science.

He has been actively involved in graduate education in economics departments in Turku, and Helsinki within KAVA, HECER and Helsinki GSE. He has organised research seminars for graduate students and supervised and evaluated many doctoral theses. Janne has taught economics, industrial economics, public economics, political science and microeconometrics at several universities in Finland and other countries. He is a member of the Turku School of Economics board.

Besides academic research, Tukiainen has written numerous reports to support policy work, for example, on municipal finances and public procurement. He has participated actively in the public debate on these themes in the media, as well as in government policy committees. He has also been a consultant and an expert witness in legal proceedings concerning Finnish asphalt and timber cartels and Valio predatory pricing case. Janne is the editor of the Journal of the Finnish Economic Association, and an associate editor of the International Tax and Public Finance, and European Journal of Political Economy journals.

Selected articles

Harjunen, O., Saarimaa, T. and Tukiainen, J. (2022) Love Thy (Elected) Neighbor? Residential Segregation, Political Representation and Local Public Goods, Journal of Politics, Accepted.

Harjunen, O., Saarimaa, T. and Tukiainen, J. (2021) Political representation and effects of municipal mergers, Political Science Research and Methods, 9(1): 72-88.

Dewan, Torun – Meriläinen, Jaakko – Tukiainen, Janne (2020) Victorian Voting: The Origins of Party Orientation and Class Alignment. American Journal of Political Science 64, 869-886.

Almunia, M., Harju, J., Kotakorpi, K., Tukiainen, J. and Verho, J. (2019) Expanding access to administrative data: the case of tax authorities in Finland and the UK. Int Tax Public Finance 26: 661–676.

Lyytikäinen, T. and Tukiainen J. (2019) Are voters rational? European Journal of Political Economy, 59: 230-242.

Tukiainen, J., Takalo, T. and Hulkkonen, T. (2019) Relative Age Effects in Political Selection. European Journal of Political Economy, 58: 50-63.

Lapointe, S., Perroni, C., Scharf, K. and Tukiainen, J. (2018) Does Market Size Matter for Charities? Journal of Public Economics, 168: 127-145.

Meriläinen, J. and Tukiainen, J. (2018) Rank effects in political promotions. Public Choice, 177: 87-109. Open access.

Hyytinen, A., Meriläinen, J., Saarimaa, T., Toivanen, O. and Tukiainen, J. (2018) When Does Regression Discontinuity Design Work? Evidence from Random Election Outcomes. Quantitative Economics 9, 1019-1051. Open access.

Hyytinen, A., Meriläinen, J., Saarimaa, T., Toivanen, O. and Tukiainen, J. (2018) Public Employees as Politicians: Evidence from Close Elections. American Political Science Review, 112(1): 68-81.

Tukiainen, J. (2017) The Effects of Minimum Bid Increments in Internet Auctions: Evidence from a Field Experiment. Journal of Industrial Economics 65(3): 597-622.

Saarimaa, T. and Tukiainen, J. (2016) Local Representation and Strategic Voting: Evidence from Electoral Boundary Reforms. European Journal of Political Economy 41: 31-45.

Saarimaa, T. and Tukiainen, J. (2015) Common Pool Problems in Voluntary Municipal Mergers. European Journal of Political Economy, 38: 140-152.

Hyytinen, A., Saarimaa, T. and Tukiainen, J. (2014) Electoral vulnerability and size of local governments: Evidence from voting on municipal mergers. Journal of Public Economics, 120: 193-204.