My main research interests are related to education, migration, social security, military draft, the role of beauty in politics and electoral competition.

I have made my undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Helsinki, supplemented by shorter and longer stays abroad. In 1999-2000, I enjoyed the opportunity of being Visiting Fellow at Harvard University through Fulbright Program. I also visited CESifo in Munich as Marie Curie Fellow and spent a semester in France as undergraduate, both experiences being rewarding both academically and otherwise. I received my doctorate from the University of Helsinki in 2002. After that, I worked for three years as Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) in Copenhagen. I returned to Finland in 2005.

I am the managing editor of the CESifo Economic Studies , the editor of the Finnish Economic Papers , and member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Political Economy .

I am Fellow at HECER , and Research Fellow at CESifo and IZA . My CV as a pdf file.


What is the role of beauty in politics? If you want to learn more, please see my joint paper with Niclas Berggren and Henrik Jordahl, published in the Journal of Public Economics. We have also written an article on babyfacedness and electoral success, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Economic effects of military draft Already Adam Smith concluded in the Wealth of Nations that a professional army is superior to a conscripted one. My empirical and theoretical joint work has arrived in the same conclusion. For a sample of my work, please see: To Draft or Not to Draft? Inefficiency, Generational Incidence, and Political Economy of Military Conscription (Published in the European Journal of Political Economy in 2007) Military Draft and Economic Growth in OECD Countries (Published in the Defense and Peace Economics in 2009). Other papers available by email upon request.

NEW: Survey chapter The Political Economy of Conscription, with Andreas Wagener, forthcoming in The Handbook on the Political Economy of War, to be published by Edward Elgar Publishing.

In August 2008, I was awarded, together with Mikael Elinder and Henrik Jordahl, Peggy and Richard Musgrave Prize for the best paper by authors younger than 40 years in the International Institute of Public Finance ( IIPF ) annual congress in Maastricht for our paper Selfish and Prospective: Theory and Evidence of Pocketbook Voting . In January 2010, our article ”Själviska och framåtblickande väljare - Hur många röster köpte maxtaxan i barnomsorgen?” was awarded Myrdal Prize for the best article published in Ekonomisk Debatt in 2009.