Applied Micro Lunch Seminar

Jarkko Harju is professor of economics at the University of Tampere and a part-time research professor in VATT's research group on social security, taxation and the distribution of income.

Jarkko focuses on studying the effects of taxes and social transfers on individual and firm behavior. Jarkko has recently studied the effects of value added tax rate changes on consumer prices and demand of goods and services. He has also examined the effects of payroll taxes on firm production decisions.

Jarkko’s research projects focus on understanding how taxes or regulation on input costs affect firm and owner-level decisions over the whole life cycle of firms. He also studies how social transfers and tax incentives affect the labor supply decisions of individuals. In addition, he examines the effects of different vehicle taxes on car fleet and the amount of driving. 

Jarkko has been a Researcher at VATT since 2008. In 2015-2019 he was a Senior Researcher and a Chief Researcher from April 2019 until he was appointed as a Research Professor in October 2019. In 2010-2011 Jarkko was a Visiting PhD Student at University College London. In 2017-2018 Jarkko was a Visiting Researcher at University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University. He gained his PhD in 2013 from the Department of Economics of the University of Turku.