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Welcome to Aalto, Osmo. What brought you here?

Last spring, Oskari Nokso-Koivisto invited me to Aalto to discuss incentive problems associated with health care. I believe that the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health had commissioned a report on the topic. I mentioned that I didn’t have an office and they said that one could be arranged right away.

What will you do during your year at Aalto and what are your goals for the year?

I plan to write a rather ambitious book, similar in style to the Hyvinvointivaltion eloonjäämisoppi (Keeping the Welfare State Alive) book that I wrote some 20 years ago and for which I received the Pro Oeconomia prize in 1995. The world has changed quite a lot since then. Now it’s time to return to the same themes.

I’m looking forward to an inspiring work atmosphere at Aalto. The coffee breaks are very important because of the opportunities they provide for exchanging ideas. Aalto holds interesting seminars on a weekly basis.

How are you going to collaborate with Aalto / School of Business people?

One problem in Finland is the growing distance between social sciences and economics. I hope that I can help the department bridge this gap.

Is there something else that you’d like to tell the Aalto community?

I graduated from the University of Helsinki. There used to be some tension between the University of Helsinki’s Department of Economics and Management and the School of Business, but this has changed now that the departments share the same building.

Osmo Soininvaara is a Finnish politician.