Finland’s register data draws international scholars – Luisa Wallosek among the first fellows

Public economist Luisa Wallossek from the University of Oslo will visit Finland in May to collaborate with researchers at Tampere University and the VATT Institute for Economic Research as part of the Finnish Infrastructure for Register-Based Research (FIRE) Visiting Fellow programme.

The Finnish Infrastructure for Register-Based Research (FIRE) has launched its Visiting Fellow programme, inviting leading international scholars to collaborate with Finnish researchers and explore Finland’s unique register data. In May, postdoctoral researcher Luisa Wallossek from the University of Oslo will arrive in Finland to visit Tampere University and the VATT Institute for Economic Research.

The FIRE Visiting Fellow programme aims to strengthen international collaboration in register-based research by bringing researchers to Finland to contribute new perspectives, methods, and networks. At the same time, it seeks to make Finland’s extensive register data more accessible to the global research community. This year, six visiting researchers will take part in the programme across FIRE’s host organisations.

As a public economist, Luisa Wallossek studies how individuals respond to public policy, especially when policies are complex to navigate. She is particularly interested in how the design of the income tax system can have unintended consequences for inequality. In her research, she primarily uses individual-level administrative data.

“I applied for a FIRE fellowship because it provides a unique opportunity for international scholars to connect with researchers working at the forefront of register-based research in Finland. For me, the fellowship offers the chance to spend time in an environment where important questions in public economics are studied using cutting-edge administrative data,” she says.

During her visit, she hopes to strengthen connections with the public economics groups at Tampere University and VATT and to learn from their work, which she describes as excellent. She also hopes to learn more about Finnish register data and to explore potential opportunities for future research.

“Register data plays a key role in today’s empirical economics and has contributed substantially to our understanding of how public policies work in practice. Many important questions are difficult, or even impossible, to study well without high-quality administrative data. Looking ahead, I hope to see more countries expand access to register data for research and make these data more accessible across borders. FIRE is a great example of how this can be done,” Luisa Wallossek says.