PhD Public Sector Economics 2025 by Helsinki GSE & FIT

Course description

This is a PhD-level course on public economics, covering both taxation and government expenditure programmes. The course is organized jointly by the University of Helsinki and Tampere University, also in collaboration with Uppsala University.

The course is open to all PhD students in Finland as well as students from other Nordic countries.

Lectures:
Hybrid lectures (Zoom / on site) every Thursday at 2 – 4pm in September – November.
Venue: Economicum, Lecture room in the Period 1, and room 3-4 in the Period 2.

In-person lectures and presentations: in Tampere in October and in Helsinki in December.

First hybrid session: Thursday, 4 September 2025
Tampere get-together: 21. – 23.10.2025 (in person). *Students may, if they want to, also attend the FIT workshop in Tampere as observers on 23. – 24.10.
Last hybrid session: Thursday, 27 November 2025
Helsinki get-together: 15. – 16.12.2025 (in person)

Finances: There is no course fee. Accommodation and travel costs to Helsinki and Tampere are covered by the course organizers for PhD students in the Finnish universities. We have secured some funding towards the travel costs for students from other Nordic countries. Inquiries on travel support: fit.events@tuni.fi.

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Enrollment

PhD students of University of Helsinki, Aalto and Hanken can register in Sisu in August as usual. The course details can be found here.

Other PhD students have to 1) apply for a study right, and 2) inform the contact person at Helsinki GSE who will register you to the course in August.

To apply for the study right, go to the site: https://www.helsinkigse.fi/studies/enrollment. Depending on your homebase, fill in the form “Apply for the study right” either under the headline “Instructions for FDPE* students” or “Instructions for PhD students at Universities Outside Finland”.

*FDPE universities: University of Jyväskylä, University of Oulu, Tampere University, University of Turku, University of Vaasa, and Åbo Akademi University.

Once you’ve submitted the application, send a note to: Jenni Rytkönen: jenni.rytkonen@aalto.fi informing her that you’ve applied for the study right and want to enroll in this course. The registrations will be processed in August.

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Assessment

• Own paper or research plan presentation (in person)
• Published paper presentation and referee report (hybrid)
• The course provides 5 credits subject to satisfactory completion of the tasks above

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Lecture topics and schedule

Weekly hybrid lectures as of 4th September every Thursday at 2 – 4pm

1. Public finance and the role of government (Kaisa Kotakorpi and Jukka Pirttilä)
2. Taxation
   a. Optimal tax theory (Jukka Pirttilä, 2 lectures)
   b. Optimal capital (income) taxation (Spencer Bastani)
   c. Tax incidence (Tuomas Kosonen)
   d. Labor supply responses to taxation (Håkan Selin)
   e. Labor supply responses to transfers (Håkan Selin)

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Tampere get-together 21. – 25.10.2025 (tentative)

Venue: Tampere University City Centre Campus, Pinni B building

Tuesday 21 October
noon – 2pm Student presentations
2pm – 4pm Responses of taxable income to tax rates (Tuomas Matikka)
4pm – 6pm Taxing labor in a globalized world (Kaisa Kotakorpi)

Wednesday 22 October
9.00 – 10.30am Capital taxation and firms: investment (Jarkko Harju)
11am – 12.30 pm Student presentations with brown bag lunches
1pm – 2pm FIT Seminar with Matz Dahlberg, theme TBA
2pm – 4pm International taxation and tax competition (Dirk Schindler)

Thursday 23 October
10am – noon Local public finance (Matz Dahlberg)

Optional: FIT workshop starts on Thursday with a lunch and will be finished on Friday afternoon (tentatively at 2pm).

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Back to normal Thursday routine, hybrid lectures weekly at 2 – 4pm

3. Social insurance, wealth and income inequality
   a. Social insurance theory: adverse selection and moral hazard (Terhi Ravaska)
   b. Pensions (Johannes Hagen)
   c. Unemployment insurance (Tomi Kyyrä)
   d. Wealth and inheritance taxation (Mikael Elinder)
   e. MVPF (Spencer Bastani)

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Helsinki get-together 15. – 16.12.2025

Monday 15 December

4. Social Insurance, wealth and income inequality con’t
   a. Disability insurance (Terhi Ravaska) 10am-noon
   b. Student presentations 1pm – 3pm
   c. Health insurance (Kaisa Kotakorpi) 15.30 -17
   d. Income inequality: measurement (Vesa-Matti Heikkuri) 16.12.2025 9am-11am
   e. Empirical trends in income inequality (tba) 1pm-3pm
   f. Student presentations 3pm – 6pm

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Additional information

Prof. Jukka Pirttilä, jukka.pirttila@helsinki.fi

Inquiries on application of the study rights and enrollment: jenni.rytkonen@aalto.fi

Inquiries on travel support for PhD students from countries outside Finland: fit.events@tuni.fi

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Photo: Jonne Renvall, Tampere University