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Jesse Lastunen
Research Associate
Jesse Lastunen is a research associate at UNU-WIDER, where his work focuses on tax-benefit microsimulation models. He has previously worked for organizations such as OECD, RAND Corporation, Internet Association, and the Technopolis Group, conducting policy-oriented research on labour markets and emerging technologies.
Jesse received his PhD in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School, with analytical concentrations in economics and quantitative methods. He has master’s degrees in international economics and technology policy.
25 articles, publications, projects...
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Workshop
Second UGAMOD retreatThe fourth training event on UGAMOD , the tax-benefit microsimulation model for Uganda, is organized as a five-day research retreat, intended to empower participants to use UGAMOD to answer their own policy questions. The retreat is composed of two...
Presentation
SOUTHMOD presented at the LOTTE-Skatt conferenceThe tax-benefit model LOTTE-Skatt is a key tool of Norwegian tax policy decision-making. To mark its 50th anniversary Statistics Norway and the Norwegian Ministry of Finance organise a conference in Oslo 15-16 June 2023. UNU-WIDER Research Associate...
Working Paper
The role of social protection and tax policies in cushioning crisis impacts on income and poverty in low- and middle-income countries: A rapid scoping reviewIn the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries enacted tax and social protection measures to help mitigate the economic hardship faced by individuals and households...
Social protection Taxation CrisisWorking Paper
Tax-benefit microsimulation model in Rwanda: A feasibility studyThis paper assesses the feasibility of developing a tax and benefit microsimulation model in Rwanda...
Tax-benefit microsimulation Revenue MicrosimulationTechnical Note
On-model adjustment of incomes during COVID-19 in SOUTHMOD tax-benefit microsimulation modelsThis note describes methods to derive employment-to-unemployment transition shares across industries during the COVID-19 pandemic and to use these shares in SOUTHMOD tax-benefit microsimulation models to adjust relevant labour market variables...
COVID-19 Shocks UnemploymentWorking Paper
Does the adoption of peer-to-government mobile payments improve tax revenue mobilization in developing countries?Developing countries need to raise sufficient tax revenue to finance development. Revenue mobilization is often hampered by limited tax compliance, weak institutions, and technical problems with tax collection...
Mobile money Tax revenue Propensity score matchingPresentation
SOUTHMOD presented at the Zurich Conference on Public Finance in Developing CountriesThe 6th Zurich Conference on Public Finance in Developing Countries brings together leading economists working on public economics in developing countries on 13-15 December 2021. The online event provides an opportunity for researchers from...
Blog
The pandemic and Africa's social safety netThe COVID-19 pandemic has shown that African tax and social-benefit systems are currently ill-equipped to protect households from sudden income losses...
Tax-benefit microsimulation SOUTHMOD Sub-Saharan AfricaBlog
Efforts to protect the poor during COVID: How five African countries faredThe number of people living in poverty around the world is estimated to have increased by half a billion people due to the COVID-19 crisis...
COVID-19 Sub-Saharan Africa Tax-benefit policyPolicy Brief
Presumptive tax, a final tax on business income, was introduced in Uganda in 1997. It has been reformed several times since its conception...
Uganda presumptive tax Tax administrationWorking Paper
An assessment of presumptive tax in Uganda: Evaluating the 2020 reform and four alternative reform scenarios using UGAMOD, a tax-benefit microsimulation model for UgandaPresumptive tax, a final tax on business income, was introduced in Uganda in 1997. The latest reform to the regime in July 2020 sought to make the system more progressive, simpler, and fairer to small firms...
presumptive tax Tax administration Small businessPolicy Brief
In 2020, the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic caused an economic crisis that disrupted the Ugandan labour market. How large were the associated income losses across different industries and population groups?...
COVID-19 Income distribution PovertyBlog
Working together to better understand how COVID-19 affects poverty and inequalityIn summer 2020 the SOUTHMOD team set out, with partners, to analyse the impact of government policies on protecting households from getting poorer and avoiding societies from becoming more unequal...
COVID-19 Income distribution PovertyWorking Paper
The mitigating role of tax and benefit rescue packages for poverty and inequality in Africa amid the COVID-19 pandemicThis paper analyses the distributional effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and related tax-benefit measures in 2020 in a cross-country comparative perspective for five African countries: Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia...
COVID-19 Income distribution PovertyTechnical Note
Imputation methods for adjusting SOUTHMOD input data to income losses due to the COVID-19 crisisThis note sets out two different methods on how to adjust incomes in the microdata underlying the standard SOUTHMOD models to reflect a sudden shock, in this case the COVID-19 shock, as done in the accompanying working paper by Lastunen et al...
Imputation Income Survey dataTechnical Note
Full-year adjustment for modelling COVID-19 policies in SOUTHMOD tax-benefit microsimulation modelsThis technical note presents a modelling approach used in Lastunen et al. (2021) where tax and benefit policies are scaled to reflect their actual duration during a single calendar year...
COVID-19 Tax-benefit microsimulation Poverty