Rate My Professor Hannu Vartiainen

Hannu Vartiainen is Professor of Microeconomic Theory in the Department of Economics at the University of Helsinki. He serves as director of the Doctoral Programme in Economics and previously as deputy director of Helsinki GSE from 2018 to 2021. Vartiainen earned his Doctor of Social Sciences (D.Soc.Sc.) in Economics from the University of Helsinki in 2000, Licentiate of Social Sciences (Lic.Soc.Sc.) in 1998, and Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Economics from the Helsinki School of Economics in 1995. His academic career includes appointments as Professor of Economics at Turku School of Economics from 2007 to 2010, where he acted as department head from 2009 to 2010; Director of Helsinki Center of Economic Research (HECER) at the University of Helsinki from 2010 to 2016; and Scientific Director of the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation from 2001 to 2007. Earlier roles encompass Postdoctoral Fellow of the Academy of Finland from 2000 to 2001. He has held visiting positions at institutions including MIT Economics Department (2004-2005), Clare Hall and INET at the University of Cambridge (2016-2017), Stanford University Graduate School of Business (spring 2022), and University of Copenhagen (fall 2025). Since 2024, he has been Treasurer of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters. Vartiainen is a CESifo Fellow and life member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.

Vartiainen's research focuses on theoretical economics, encompassing game theory, mechanism design, decision theory, coalition formation, and social choice theory. He has co-edited books including Behavioral Economics and its Applications (Princeton University Press, 2007, with Peter Diamond) and Incentives and Finance of Health Care (Government Institute for Economic Research, 2007, with Antti Suvanto). Key publications feature Auction design without commitment (Journal of the European Economic Association, 2013), Dynamic stable set as a tournament solution (Social Choice and Welfare, 2015), Endogenous agenda formation processes with the one-deviation property (Theoretical Economics, 2014), Dynamic coalitional equilibrium (Journal of Economic Theory, 2011), and Nash implementation and the bargaining problem (Social Choice and Welfare, 2007). His contributions appear in prestigious journals such as Games and Economic Behavior and Review of Economic Design. Awards include the Jaakko Honko Medal (2021), Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation Medal (2011 or 2010), and Doctor Primus from the University of Helsinki Faculty of Social Sciences (2000). He has participated in numerous committees, review panels, research networks, and delivered public talks and oral presentations on topics like mechanism design.