Niku Maattanen

Niku Määttänen holds a PhD in Economics from University of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. He is currently research director at the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) and adjunct professor at Aalto University in Helsinki, where he teaches regularly.

Niku’s ambition is to do rigorous research that is relevant for policy making. His research has focused on fiscal policy, housing markets and social security. He has also led many collaborative research projects, including a recent Horizon 2020 project on fiscal coordination in the EU

Education and degrees

• Adjunct professor (title of docent), Aalto University, 2014-.
• Ph.D., Department of Economics and Management, University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain,
• 2004.
• Doctoral thesis: “Housing and the macro economy”. Supervisor: Professor Michael Reiter,
• University of Pompeu Fabra.
• Master in Economics, with Honors, Department of Economics and Management, University of
• Pompeu Fabra, 1999.
• Master in Social Sciences, Department of Economics, University of Helsinki, 1997.

Professional experience

• Research fellow, Aalto University, 2017
• Research director, Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, 2015.
• Research supervisor, Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, 2010-2014.
• Professor (fixed-term), Helsinki School of Economics, 1/2009-12/2009.
• Visiting researcher, Bank of Finland, 4/2007-6/2007.
• Research supervisor, Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, 2006-2008.
• Research economist, Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, 2003-2005.

Publications in international refereed journals and books

• Borrowing constraints and housing market liquidity, with Essi Eerola, Review of Economic Dynamics, 2018, 27.
• An augmented static Olley-Pakes productivity decomposition with entry and exit: measurement and interpretation (2015), with Mika Maliranta, Economica, 82(s1).
• Response to update mortality forecasts in life cycle saving and labor supply, with Juha Alho, International Journal of Forecasting, 2014, 30(4).
• The welfare effects of the Finnish survivor’s pension scheme, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, 2014, 39, article 3.
• Income distribution and housing prices: An assignment model approach, with Marko Terviö, Journal of Economic Theory, 2014, 151, p. 381-410.
• The optimal tax treatment of housing capital in the neoclassical growth model, with Essi Eerola, Journal of Public Economic Theory, 2013, 15(6).
• Borrowing constraints and house price dynamics: the case of large shocks, with Essi Eerola, Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, 2012, 16(3).
• Informational assumptions, aggregate mortality risk and life cycle savings, with Juha M. Alho, in Alho et al. (eds.), Uncertain Demograghics and Fiscal Sustainability, Cambridge University press, 2008.
• On the political economy of housing’s tax status, with Essi Eerola, The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics 2006, 6(2) (Topics), article 7.
• Citizens Should Vote on Secession, with Essi Eerola and Panu Poutvaara, Topics in Economic Analysis & Policy, 2004, 4(1), article 23.
• Strategic Alliances, Joint Investments, and Market Structure, with Essi Eerola, International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2004, 22(2), 241-51.