Roope Uusitalo

Roope Uusitalo

Professor, PhD Economics

Education Labour markets

roope.uusitalo@helsinki.fiLink to an external website

+358 50 432 6094

+358 40 805 4863

Roope Uusitalo is Professor of Public Economics at the University of Helsinki and VATT Institute for Economic Research. Uusitalo started in this role in the autumn of 2018.

Uusitalo's research areas are education economics, public economics and labour economics. His latest research covers protection against unfair dismissal, demand for social skills in the job market and the effects of education policy reforms.

Uusitalo received his PhD from the University of Helsinki in 1999. Prior to the Professorship in Public Economics, he was employed by the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics as Professor of Education Economics since 2015. In 2014-2019, Uusitalo was the first Chairman of the Finnish Economic Policy CouncilLink to an external websiteOpens in a new tab, established in 2014. He is a Research Fellow at the German IZA Institute of Labour Economics.

Selected articles

Kristiina Huttunen, Tuomas Pekkarinen, Roope Uusitalo, Hanna Virtanen (2023). Lost boys? Secondary education and crimeLink to an external websiteOpens in a new tab. Journal of Public Economics. Volume 218. Open Access.

Jokela, M., Pekkarinen, T., Sarvimäki, M., Terviö, M. and Uusitalo, R. (2017) Secular rise in economically valuable personality traits.Link to an external website Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(25): 6527-6532.

Böckerman, P., Skedinger, P. and Uusitalo, R. (2018): Seniority rules, worker mobility and wages: Evidence from multi-country linked employer-employee dataLink to an external website. Labour Economics, 51: 48-62.

Koerselman, K and Uusitalo, R. (2014): The Risk and Return of Human Capital InvestmentsLink to an external website. Labour Economics, 30: 154-163.

Rokkanen, M and Uusitalo, R. (2013): Changes in Job Stability – Evidence from Lifetime Job HistoriesLink to an external website, Finnish Economic Papers 26(2). 

Moisio, A. and Uusitalo, R. (2013): The impact of municipal mergers on local public expenditures in FinlandLink to an external website, Public Finance and Management, 13(3)

Huttunen, K., Pirttilä, J. and Uusitalo, R. (2013): The employment effects of low-wage subsidiesLink to an external website. Journal of Public Economics, 97: 49-60.

Kerr, S., Pekkarinen, T. and Uusitalo, R. (2013): School Tracking and Development of Cognitive SkillsLink to an external website. Journal of Labor Economics 31(3): 577-602.

Uusitalo, R. and Verho, J. (2010): The effect of unemployment benefits on re-employment rates: Evidence from the Finnish unemployment insurance reformLink to an external website. Labour Economics, 17(4): 643-654 [dp1Link to an external website]

Söderström, M. and Uusitalo, R. (2010): School choice and segregation: Evidence from an admission reformLink to an external website. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 112(1): 55-76. [dp2Link to an external website]

Pirttilä, J. and Uusitalo, R. (2010): Leaky bucket in the real world: Estimating inequality aversion using survey dataLink to an external website. Economica, 77: 60-76 [dp3Link to an external website]

Pekkarinen, T., Uusitalo, R. and Kerr, S. (2009): School tracking and intergenerational income mobility: Evidence from the Finnish comprehensive school reformLink to an external website. Journal of Public Economics 93(7-8): 965-973. [dp4Link to an external website]

Böckerman, P., Hämäläinen, U. and Uusitalo, R. (2009): Labour Market Effects of the Polytechnic Education Reform: The Finnish ExperienceLink to an external websiteOpens in a new tab. Economics of Education Review, 28(6): 672-681. [dp5Link to an external website]

Korkeamäki, O. and Uusitalo, R. (2009): Employment and wage effects of a payroll-tax cut: Evidence from a regional experimentLink to an external website. International Tax and Public Finance, 16(6): 753-772. [dp6Link to an external website]

Böckerman, P. and Uusitalo, R. (2008): Minimum wages and youth employment: Evidence from the Finnish retail trade sector.Link to an external website British Journal of Industrial Relations, 47(2): 388-405. [dp7Link to an external websiteOpens in a new tab]

Hämäläinen, K., Uusitalo, R. and Vuori, J. (2008): Varying biases in matching estimates: Evidence from two randomised job search training experimentsLink to an external website. Labour Economics, 15: 604-618. [dp8Link to an external website]

Hämäläinen, U. and Uusitalo, R. (2008): Signalling or human capital: Evidence from the Finnish polytechnic school reformLink to an external website. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 110: 755-775. [dp9Link to an external website]

Böckerman, P. and Uusitalo, R. (2006): Union membership and the erosion of the Ghent system: Lessons from Finland.Link to an external website British Journal of Industrial Relations 44(2): 283–303. [dp10Link to an external website]

Hakola, T. and Uusitalo, R. (2005): Not so voluntary retirement decisions? Evidence from a pension reformLink to an external website. Journal of Public Economics, 89: 2121-2136. [dp11Link to an external website]

Research projects