Matti Virén, Consultant, Research Unit

Professor Matti Virén, PhD (Economics) has been a scientific advisor to the Research Unit since 1991 in addition to his post at the University of Turku.
 External home page (University of Turku)

Education and degrees
1) M.Soc.Sc., University of Helsinki, 1971
2) Lic.Soc.Sc., Univesity of Helsinki, 1974
3) Dr.Soc.Sc., University of Helsinki, 1982
thesis title: "Human Capital and Wage Differentials in a Dynamic Theory of the Firm", accepted 1980
4) Ph.D. candidate, University of Chicago, 1974/1975 (Fulbright scholarship)
5) Professor of Economics, University of Turku, 1990.
6) Member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences, 1997

Academic experience
Teaching assistant, University of Helsinki, Department of Economics, from September 1972 to December 1972, and from September 1975 to July 1977.
Senior lecturer, University of Helsinki, Department of Economics, from November 1977 to December 1979.
Assistant professor, University of Helsinki, Department of Economics, from January 1980 to June 1980.
Docent of economics, University of Helsinki, Department of Economics, from May 1984 to present.
Acting professor of econometrics, University of Helsinki, Department of Economics, from August 1986 to December 1987.
Visiting lecturer, various universities, IHTTI (Lucerne), and other institutions.
Professor of economics, University of Turku, Department of Economics, January 1991 to December 1996, and from January 1999 to November 2001, and from May 2003 to present. On leave of absence, from January 1997 to December 1998 and from November 2001 to April 2003.

Research and other experience
Research fellow (and project manager), the SITRA foundation, Helsinki, from January 1973 to May 1974.
Research fellow, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA), from March 1980 to February 1983.
Research supervisor, Bank of Finland, from March 1983 to December 1990.
Consultant (full-time), UN Economic Commission for Europe, General Economic Analysis Division, Geneva, November 1984 and from September- to December 1985.
Consultant, European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Geneva, 1988.
Research fellow, the Academy of Finland (on sabbatical leave from the University of Turku), 1995-1996.
Consultant, Bank of Finland, January 1991 to present.
Research director (and the Deputy of the General Director) Government Institute for Economic Research (Helsinki), from January 1997 to December 1998.
Pre-accession advisor in the Polish Ministry of Finance, Warsaw, November 2001 to April 2003. Medium-term expert (part time) in the same Ministry from May 2003 to August 2003.

90 articles in refereed foreign journals or edited books, 14 books or monographs and 110 articles in Finnish professional journals. In addition, numerous discussion/working papers and newspaper columns.

List of articles

The Variance Hypothesis on Output-Inflation Trade-off-Evidence from Scandinavia
Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 1980, 481–495 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

New International Evidence on Output-Inflation Tradeoffs – A Note
Economic Letters, 1981, 233–239 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Saving and Inflation: Some International Evidence
Economics Letters, 1982, 337–344 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

An Empirical Analysis of the Demand for Houses, Durables and Non-durables
Empirical Economics, 1982, 49–61 (co-authored by Ilkka Mellin)

Inflation, Tight Money and Household Saving Behavior: Finnish Evidence
Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 1982, 483–492 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Inflation and Saving: Testing Deaton's Hypothesis
Applied Economics, 1982, 579–590 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

A Note on Long-Term Determinants of the Private Savings Ratio
Economics Letters, 1982, 107–113 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Hur Finansieras Investeringarna i Finland, Norge och Sverige i Framtiden?
Ekonomisk Debatt, 1982, 434–440 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela and Marianne Stenius)

Social Security and Household Saving in an International Cross Section
American Economic Review, 1983, 212–217 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

National Debt Neutrality: Some International Evidence
Kyklos, 1983, 575–588 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Household Saving out of Different Types of Income Revisited
Applied Economics, 1984, 379–396 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Testing the Stability of the Hall Consumption Function
Economics Letters, 1984, 289–293 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Credit Rationing and Consumer Intertemporal Choice
Oxford Economic Papers, 1984, 241–247 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Inflation, Relative Prices and Household Saving Behaviour
Empirical Economics, 1984, 183–197

Some Further Results on Rosen and Quandt's Labor Market Model
European Economic Review, 1984, 369–377 (co-authored by Marianne Stenius)

Anticipated versus "Surprise" Inflation in Household Consumption Behaviour
Economics Letters, 1985, 77–81 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Consumption Function, Labor Supply Rationing and Borrowing Constraints
Oxford Economic Papers 1985, 500–509 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Determination of Employment with Wage and Price Speculation
Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 1985, 357–373

The Role of Inflation in Consumption Function
Weltwirschaftliches Archiv, 1985, 252–260 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Time-Varying Hall Consumption Function
Economics Letters, 1985, 321–325 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

The Relationship between Interest Rates and Inflation during the Prewar Period
Economics Letters, 1986, 23–27

Testing the Direct Substitutability Hypothesis of Saving
Applied Economics, 1986, 143–155 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Some Further Results on Rosen and Quandt's Labor Market Model: Queries and Disagreements: A Reply
European Economic Review, 1986, 461–462 (co-authored by Marianne Stenius)

Social Security and Household Saving in an International Cross Section: A Reply
American Economic Review, 1986, 289–290 (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Endogenous Policy, Structural Shift, and Demand for Money
Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, 1986, 647–656, (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Examining the Long-Run Relationship between Interest Rates and Inflation: Some Cross-Country Evidence
Economic Notes, 1986, 122–166

New Evidence on Long Swings
Kyklos, 1986, 596–602, (co-authored by Pentti Pikkarainen)

Estimating the Output Effects of Energy Price and Real Interest Rate Shocks: A Cross-Country Study
Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft und Statistik, 1986, 627–639

Inflation, Hedging and the Fisher Hypothesis
Journal of Macroeconomics, 1987, 45–57

Population Shocks and Employment: Testing the Labor Market Equilibrium Hypothesis
Economics Letters, 1987, 113–117, (co-authored by Juha Tarkka)

Inflation, Hedging and the Demand for Money: Some Empirical Evidence
Economic Inquiry, 1987, 251–265, (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Inflation and Interest Rates, Some Time Series Evidence from 6 OECD Countries
Empirical Economics, 1987, 51–66

Inflation and the Euler Equation Approach to Consumption Behaviour: Some Empirical Evidence
Economics Letters, 1987, 233–238, (co-authored by Erkki Koskela.

Long-Term Changes in Consumption: Summaries and Syntheses of National Contributions
Economic Bulletin for Europe 39, 1987, 457–459

Examining the Role of Expectations in a Macromodel: Some Results with the Finnish QMED Model
Economic Modelling, 1988, 347–353, (co-authored by Ari Lahti)

Interest Rates and Budget Deficits: Cross-Country Evidence from the Period 1924–1938
Economics Letters, 1988, 235–238

Granger Causality between Money, Output, Prices and Interest Rates: Some Cross-Country Evidence from the Period 1875–1984
Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, 1989, 74–82, (co-authored by Pentti Pikkarainen)

Saving, Investment and the Current Account: A Review of Recent Evidence
Economic Notes, 1989, 69–75

International Differences in Saving Rates and the Life Cycle Hypothesis: A Comment
European Economic Review, 1989, 1489–1498, (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

The Long-Run Relationship between Interest Rates and Inflation: Some Cross-Country Evidence
Journal of Banking and Finance, 1989, 571–585

Monetary Policy Regimes and the Dynamics of the Demand for Money, in P. Artus and Y. Barroux (eds.) Monetary Policy: A Theoretical and Econometric Approach, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990, 99–116, (co-authored by Erkki Koskela)

Work in progress
- Inflation expectations and regime shifts
- Role of inflation expectations in a VAR model (together with Maritta Paloviita)
- Asymmetries and aggregation in the Euro area (together with David Mayes)
- Micro evidence on the effect of firm characteristics on labour demand (together with Jaakko Kiander and Jouko Vilmunen)

Current research interest
- Applied macro economics; household saving behaviour, measurement of policy effects with macro models, forecasting, empirical models of criminal behaviour, nonlinear econometric models.
- Applied monetary economics: particularly the demand for currency and money, monetary and fiscal policy transmission mechanism, the effects of financial innovations and currency substitution, payment systems.
- Fiscal policy and the size of government: measurement of fiscal policy effects, automatic stabilisers, tax incidence, policy coordination.