Supporting public sector decision-making with research-based data-analysis, Otto Toivanen Aalto yliopisto

1. Supporting public
sector decision-making
with research-based
data-analysis
Otto Toivanen
Professor, Aalto University
Academic Director, Helsinki GSE
14.6.2023

2. Contents
1.Short history of Dataroom –
activity
2.Possibilities of data
3.What use are reseachers?
4.Why would researchers bother?
5.Some action points
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3. 3
1. Short history

4. 1. Short history
• Date that I remember: Friday 13th 2020.
• MoF needed all help they could get.
• No dataroom
• Helsinki GSE with the help of Statistics Finland + VATT + MoF promised
to establish one.
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5. Essential features & difference to
existing practice
• From get-go to operations in a few weeks.
• Up-to-date data instead of data that is 2 years old or older.
• Large amounts of data, also ones that are not the basis of statistics.
• Example: Income register.
• Facilitated practices / removal of red tape.
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6. What did the GSE Situation Room do?
• Weekly/biweekly/monthly info-sessions:
• Public
• Civil servants
• All analyses public.
• Simple graphs to extensive analyses.
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7. Cooperation partners
• Ministries
• Municipalities
• Parliament
• Other, e.g. KRAR.
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8. Lessons
• Situation was a “proof of concept”
• Cooperation absolutely essential
• Organizations running registers
• Statistics Finland
• Civil servants
• Researchers
• From GSE Situation Room to VATT Data Room.
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9. 9
2. Possibilities of data

10. Nurses: changes in and out of nursing
jobs during COVID-19
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Inflow
Outflow

11. Exports to Russia’s neighbors by firms
that used to export to Russia
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12. Possibilities
• Possibilities are endless…
• Bottlenecks:
• Understanding of the possibilities
• Lack of practice in using data
• Data itself
• Human resources
• 5-10 year horizon, VATT Data Room also an investment in education.
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13. 3. What use are
researchers?
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14. What use are researchers?
• Sometimes simple graphs are all one needs.
• Sometimes complicated analyses are warranted.
• Always crucial: knowledge of what data is available, what it can be used
for and how it should be used.
• Simple things often require deep knowledge.
• ➔ Researchers are an essential input.
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15. 4. Why would researcher
bother?
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16. Why would researchers bother?
• Researchers care about research.
• But: Researchers also want to be relevant.
• And: In order to do conduct high-quality research on important topics,
knowledge of how the world works is needed.
• Researchers can be ”bribed” to participate if they are allowed to do
research.
• If they aren’t allowed, they will stay away / drift away.
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17. 5. Some action points
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18. Some action points
• The large investment: establishing and running registers.
• The small investment: making those data available for policy-making and
research purposes.
• Fixed cost, public good ➔ make available at marginal cost.
• One never knows who comes up with the best use ➔ make available at
marginal cost.
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