Jukka Pekkarinen and Heli Jeskanen-Sundström awarded Eino H. Laurila national income medal

The Eino H. Laurila national income medal for 2012 has been awarded to PhD Jukka Pekkarinen and MSSc Heli Jeskanen-Sundström. The medals are granted in recognition of their active work in promoting the use of national accounts and knowledge about them.

Jukka Pekkarinen, PhD, is Director General of the Economics Department at the Ministry of Finance. He previously worked as Director of the Labour Institute for Economic Research and as State Under-Secretary for Economic Affairs and Secretary General of the Economic Council in the Prime Minister's Office. During his career, Dr Pekkarinen has published a substantial number of articles and publications, as well as a textbook on economics. In his notable duties and as an active writer and debater, Dr Pekkarinen has made use of national accounts and increased knowledge about them as a tool for overall economic thinking.

Before her retirement last year, Heli Jeskanen-Sundström, MSSc, worked as Director General of Statistics Finland. During her career, Ms Jeskanen-Sundström worked successfully and visibly in various co-operative organs in the field of statistics both in Finland and abroad. She has held governing positions in the statistical committees of the EU, OECD and UN, for instance. In her noteworthy career, Ms Jeskanen-Sundström consistently supported and promoted the development of national accounts and international recommendations relating to them and their use as the basic framework for fact-based economic analysis.

The medals will be handed over to Jukka Pekkarinen and Heli Jeskanen-Sundström at the afternoon seminar of the Finnish Economic Association on Monday, 18 March 2013 at 4 pm (Economicum, lecture room 2nd floor, Arkadiankatu 7, Helsinki).

The Eino H. Laurila national income medal is awarded in recognition of noteworthy work to advance the development and application of economic descriptive systems, and promote knowledge about them. A further aim of the medal is to nurture interaction between economic research and practical work on the compilation of statistics. Decisions about awarding of the medal are made by the Ekonomiska Samfundet i Finland, the Finnish Statistical Society, the Finnish Economic Association, Statistics Finland and the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation. The first medal was awarded to Professor Eino H. Laurila in 1993 for his extensive work on the development of Finnish national accounts.

Inquiries:
Ari Tyrkkö, Head, Co-ordination and International Activities, Statistics Finland, +358 1734 3261; email: firstname.lastname@stat.fi

Finnish Economic Association