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Tuukka Saarimaa, Chief Researcher at the Government Institute for Economic Research (VATT), has been appointed as Assistant Professor of Urban Economics at the Helsinki Graduate School of Economics. Saarimaa will be working at Aalto University Department of Economics at the School of Business and the Department of Built Environment at the School of Engineering. He will begin work in his new position on 20 August 2018.

Saarimaa’s research at VATT has focused on housing markets and local public finance. In his recent research, he has studied publicly subsidised housing production, consolidations of municipalities and the effects of municipal politics on municipal activities.

‘My goal at Helsinki GSE is to develop and increase education and research in urban economics and at the same time to provide research-based knowledge to be used in decision making on urban and housing policy’, Saarimaa says.

Saarimaa received his PhD in economics in 2009 from the University of Joensuu. His doctoral thesis explored the taxation of owner-occupied housing. Before starting work for VATT, Saarimaa worked at the University of Eastern Finland. He has also worked as a visiting researcher at Tufts University and the London School of Economics.

Helsinki GSE received donations towards the professorship in urban economics from Cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen, as well as Local Government Pensions Institution Keva, MuniFin Municipality Finance and the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities. 

The task of Helsinki GSE, established in the spring of 2018, is to increase the quantity and quality of economic education and training in Finland and to promote cooperation between economics and other academic fields. Helsinki GSE is a joint unit of Aalto University, University of Helsinki and Hanken School of Economics.

Inquiries:
Tuukka Saarimaa
tuukka.saarimaa@vatt.fi
tel. +358 295 519 444