Seminars

1. Research
2. Seminars

We organise seminars for researchers on Wednesdays from 10am to 11am.  Labore seminars will be arranged on-site, hybrid or Teams. The seminars will be held at Economicum (Arkadiankatu 7), seminar room, 4th floor.

FORTHCOMING

• 4.10. Juha Tervala (Univ. of Helsinki): Hybrid Building the Education Revolution: The Employment Effects of Fiscal Stimulus in Australia (hybrid)

ABSTRACT: The paper presents a thorough examination of the causal impact of the Great Recession-era BER (Building the Education Revolution) school infrastructure stimulus program on labor market outcomes in Australia. This analysis represents the first extensive academic evaluation of the BER program. The findings suggest that the program provided significant value for money, with an average cost per job-year saved estimated to be below $8,500 ($US 8,000) between 2009 and 2012. The study reveals that in 2009, the main year of program impact, approximately one-third of employment benefits were attributed to reducing unemployment, while two-thirds were related to preventing labor force exit. The reductions in unemployment were more pronounced among men, whereas the program’s effects on employment exhibited a more balanced distribution across genders compared to expectations based on the gender composition of the construction industry. Furthermore, the employment benefits were concentrated among individuals aged 25 to 34, and the program’s effectiveness was not influenced by the initial unemployment rates in different regions. Additionally, the paper utilizes a Bayesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with hysteresis to estimate the cost per job-year saved and approximate the output multipliers in a ‘closed economy, no monetary policy response’ scenario. The results support the presence of a learning-by-doing process in the production technology, which implies productivity and output hysteresis. Overall, the empirical and theoretical findings suggest that a fiscal stimulus program comprising numerous small-scale infrastructure projects can be an exceptionally cost-effective form of stimulus during recessions. The paper identifies several factors that contributed to the success of the BER program, including its targeting of a highly cyclical industry, geographical dispersion of projects across the country, crowding-in of private investment, rapid construction during the crisis’s most intensive stage, and emphasis on skill development and human capital formation among younger Australians.

• 11.10. Jon Piqueras (UCL): Unemployment Insurance in Booms and Recessions (ATTN! TIME 15 pm, only on-line)
  
• 18.10. Not seminar
• 25.10. Segal Le Guern Herry (Sciences Po): Wealth taxation in France (live)
• 1.11. Merja Kauhanen (Labore): Kilpailukykysopimus ja sosiaaliturvan jakautuminen (hybrid)
• 8.11. Fabio Verona (Bank of Finland): Forecast combination in the frequency domain (hybrid)
• 29.11. Paul Schüle (ifo & LMU): TBA (live)
• 6.12. Not seminar
• 13.12. Christian Philip Hoeck (University of Copenhagen): TBA (live)

PAST SEMINAR

• 18.1.2023. Michaela Elfsbacka Schmöller (Bank of Finland): Endogenous Technology, Scarring and Fiscal Policy 
• 29.3. Lauro Carnicelli (Labore): Effects of paternity leave reforms on gender inequality in the labor market
• 26.4. Lauro Carnicelli (Labore): The impacts of union-led training on working conditions. Experimental evidence from Mozambique
• 24.5. Eljas Aalto (Labore): Net Energy and Directed Technical Change
• 7.6. Saara Tuuli (Nordic Investment Bank/Helsingin yliopisto):  Who Funds Zombie Firms: Banks or Non-banks?
• 21.6. Sami Jysmä (Labore): Redistribution vs. social insurance: Measuring the social welfare impacts of tax and transfer policies