Juha Tolvanen

I am an applied microeconomist and am especially interested in the role that information and communication have in forming social outcomes. These issues motivate my work in two areas of economic interaction: industrial organization and political economy.

As for industrial organization, I am passionate about the disproportionate impact that even small information advantages held by few market participants have on global market structures. Within political economy, I study how new anti-establishment parties continue to use ambiguity and unpredictability in their communication to gain votes and affect the stability of contemporary democracies. These are two readings of the same fundamental questions: what people do when they hold information that others do not, and how that can lead to market failures, populist outbursts, failed companies, and, essentially, lost wealth.

Working directly with companies and organizations, I address the immaterial nature of communication and information, and aim to quantify the economic implications of information flows. I do this combining theory with the data sources generated in the day-to-day company operations.

I obtained my PhD from Princeton in 2016 and currently work as an assistant professor at the Tor Vergata University of Rome.