Heikki Hiilamo

University of Helsinki | HY · Department of Social Policy

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken everyday life causing morbidity and mortality across the globe. While each country has been hit by the pandemic, individual countries have had different infection and health trajectories. Of all welfare state institutions, healthcare has faced the most immense pressure due to the pandemic and hence, we ta...

This article examines with empirical evidence the social protection measures implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in ten welfare states in the Global North. We analysed the potential similarities and differences in responses by welfare regimes. The comparative study was conducted with data from 169 measures, collected from domestic sour...

Purpose The purpose of this scoping review is to analyse comparative studies on social-policy measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic in Global North welfare states. The authors also consider the potential influence of the regimes on the responses. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a scoping review of six databases includ...

The COVID-19 pandemic showed that many developing countries could not respond effectively to crises due to their limited capacity to diversify their social protection responses. Social protection systems depend mainly on government tax revenue capacity. Raising domestic revenue still represents a priority for most sub-Saharan African countries, whi...

Purpose For social inclusion, it is necessary to have a sense of belonging to society, whether having a job or not. Experience of belonging means feeling a part of something beyond oneself. It can be a place, a moment, a situation or a group of people. Design/methodology/approach The authors study how unemployed people experience their place in a...

Finland conducted the first nationwide field experiment with partial basic income between 2017 and 2018. The experiment and its results were widely reported in international media and featured in political debates across the globe. Domestically, the experiment had an impact on social policy debates but no impact on social policy. For example, it di...

Grandparental care has become an involuntary choice in life for many families, mainly due to parents’ unavailability to provide care and the lack of public or affordable private childcare. This phenomenon has raised concerns regarding the effects of grandparental care along the dimensions of child development. This study aims to test the associatio...

In our recent paper,¹ we examined associations between family income during childhood and adolescence on subsequent risks of developing psychiatric disorders, having substance misuse problems and being arrested for a violent crime. We used nationwide population data on 650 680 individuals born in Finland between 1986 and 1996 and their siblings. Ou...

After decades of debates on the economic and philosophical merits and shortcomings of a universal basic income (UBI), more recent literature has started to investigate the politics of a UBI. While several studies shed new light on the individual characteristics associated with higher or lower support for a UBI, we still do not know what features of...

The report examines how the "youth obligation to apply for education" works. The obligation is a condition for accessing unemployment benefits for young people under the age of 25 who lack a vocational or a tertiary education. This is examined through register data, interviews with Public Employment Service staff, educational institutions' staff an...

This article aims to classify the healthcare systems of 43 developed economies into different healthcare system types, and to examine whether the dimensions of health system characteristics produce coherent health system classification when the dimensions are observed separately. We group health systems into different types based on their instituti...

Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the specialized health-care resources have been the main focus of political attention in any country. However, the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have also had a major impact on social services. The pandemic increased service needs among those who were already adult social work clients before the pa...

A study of human rights violations against deaf people and the sign language community since 1900 and of launching a truth and reconciliation process between the government and the community was conducted in 2020–2021 in accordance with the government programme of Prime Minister Sanna Marin. The community has been discriminated against throughout...

By means of qualitative longitudinal material, this article explores meaningfulness during persistent monetary poverty through an integrative framework, which builds upon conceptualisations of meaning in life (coherence, significance, and purpose) and modes of being (labour, work, action). The material consists of 36 autobiographical accounts and t...

Terveydenhuoltoon ja kuntoutukseen suuntautuvien matkojen kustannuksia korvataan sairausvakuutuksesta. Kela siirtyi sairausvakuutuksen korvaamissa taksimatkoissa vuosina 2010–2014 sairaanhoitopiirikohtaisen tilausvälityskeskuksen käyttöön tavoitteena säästää kustannuksissa matkoja yhdistelemällä. Oikeus palvelun käyttöön ei välttämättä merkitse oik...

Importance Children who are placed in out-of-home care may have poorer outcomes in adulthood, on average, compared with their peers, but the direction and magnitude of these associations need clarification. Objective To estimate associations between being placed in out-of-home care in childhood and adolescence and subsequent risks of experiencing...

Objectives The world first global health treaty, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) aims to reduce tobacco product demand by focusing on tobacco taxes, smoking bans, health warning labels and tobacco advertising bans. Previous studies almost unanimously suggest that FCTC has prompted countries to implement more effective tobacco dem...

Contributing to the emerging religion and development literature, this study sets out to analyse the role of faith in the context of a particular development approach, ‘Use Your Talents’ (UYT) at the Malagasy Lutheran Church in Madagascar. By analysing the views of lay Christian informants with regard to their involvement in the UYT project, the st...

Background Childhood family income has been shown to be associated with later psychiatric disorders, substance misuse and violent crime, but the consistency, strength and causal nature of these associations remain unclear. Methods We conducted a nationwide cohort and co-sibling study of 650 680 individuals (426 886 siblings) born in Finland betwee...

Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the specialized health care resources have been the main focus of political attention in any country. However, the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have also had a major impact on social services. The pandemic increased service needs among those who were already adult social work clients before the pa...

Empirical research results about the financial and social effects of Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 are presented. The report includes data from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Ukraine, U.K.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the arguments used by the alcohol industry and actors aligning with it as a lobbying strategy on Twitter to influence the reform of the Finnish alcohol law during its preparation phase between 2014 and 2017, when the original purpose of the law reform was changed from reducing alcohol-related har...

Objectives This review summarises the existing evidence on the effects of the Great Recession on mental health, substance use and violence in families with children and discusses the policy and service-system implications of this evidence. Methods Peer-reviewed articles published in English between January 2010 and August 2020 were identified thro...

en Rapid economic growth, declining fertility and changes in family structures have encouraged the Kingdom of Cambodia to reform its old‐age pension system. The Government of Cambodia reached an important milestone in 2019, when the Law on Social Security was promulgated. The Law includes provisions for a compulsory defined benefit pension scheme,...

With the expansion of credit, low interest rates and overly optimistic expectations about future economic and housing price developments, mortgage lending soared in most OECD countries in the run-up to the 2008 global economic crisis. The crisis revealed the hidden epidemic of over-indebtedness, which continues to overshadow the lives of millions i...

The poverty of lone mothers in Finland was examined using three qualitative data sets and by implementing a capability approach (CA). The most valuable function for lone mothers, as they saw it, along with surviving monetary poverty was raising their children as good citizens. When mothers succeeded in raising ‘good citizens’, they felt they lived...

While Manufacturing 4.0 will create benefits and wealth for the leading manufacturing companies that are employing automated and robotized manufacturing systems the replacement of human workers with automation and the geographical shift of manufacturing will potentially create temporary waves of risen unemployment in the manufacturing sector. This...

A steady improvement in the economy and employment since 2010 did not stop the drop in total fertility rate in Finland. Declining fertility now includes women in almost all age and educational groups in the country. This decline has continued long enough to also indicate a dramatic decrease in completed fertility, which is a departure from decades...

Suomalaista poliittista päätöksentekoa on 2000-luvulla pyritty sitomaan vahvemmin tutkittuun tietoon. Näyttöperusteinen päätöksenteko on ollut tähän liittyen keskeinen käsite. Sille annetut määritelmät rajaavat päätöksenteon kannalta relevanttina pidetyn tutkimuksen kokonaisuutta. Tämän tutkimuksen tieteenalapohjan ja metodologioiden kokonaisuuteen...

How can congregational diakonia contribute to community development in the absence of external resources? Community-driven development rests on the principle of development through community participation. Faithbased communities have the potential to be important stakeholders in civil societies and local communities through the participation and in...

Aim The aim of this study was to investigate the strategies used by the alcohol industry to influence the reform of the Alcohol Act in Finland during the preparation phase between 2016 and 2017. The study answers the following research question: what strategies were used by the alcohol industry to change the original purpose of the reform on alcoho...

Cumulative contributions of social and health-related determinants to long-term unemployment during early working life among young adults are poorly understood. Therefore, we used four cumulative indices of both parental and own social and health-related determinants of such unemployment among a cohort which comprised a complete census of children...

1 Background Parental mental disorders have been shown to predict offspring's mental health problems. We examined whether pathways from parental mental disorders to offspring's psychiatric work disability in early adulthood are mediated through offspring's mental disorders and social disadvantage in adolescence. 2 Methods Study population consiste...

Eriarvoisuus terveyspalvelujen laadussa ja saatavuudessa voi vahvistaa sosioekonomisia terveyseroja. Toimeentulotuen saajat sairastavat ja käyttävät julkisia terveyspalveluja muuta saman ikäistä väestöä enemmän. Tutkimuksessa vertailtiin rekisteriaineiston avulla toimeentulotuen saajien (N=37 836) ja ei-toimeentulotuen saajien (N=430 997) lääkekorv...

In many developed countries lone parent families face high rates of child poverty. Among those lone parents who do get child maintenance there is a hidden problem. States may retain all, or a proportion, of the maintenance that is paid in order to offset other fiscal costs. Thus, the full potential of child maintenance to alleviate poverty among lo...

Objective To quantify changes in tobacco tax rates and cigarette affordability after countries ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) using with the WHO MPOWER standards. Methods We used logistic regression to assess the association of FCTC ratification with adoption of at least 50% and 75% (high) of retail price tobacco t...

The trajectories of increasing household debt are studied in the contexts of the US and the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Norway. Household Debt and Economic Crises examines remedies to prevent and alleviate the over-indebtedness epidemic, creating a conceptual framework with which to analyse the causes and consequences of debt. Hiilamo...

The NEET concept has become widely used internationally since its emergence in the UK almost two decades ago. This article reviews the adoption of the concept in two extreme contexts in terms of NEET rates, youth opportunities and youth welfare: the Nordic countries and South Africa. The article discusses the situations of NEET young people in the...

Anthony Atkinson's idea of a participation income draws attention to the various ways in which people contribute to society. Current discussions on social participation go beyond paid work to include volunteering, education, and caregiving to kin. With the idea of the participation income, various forms of contribution can be highlighted and acknow...

This study asks how Finnish 6-year-olds who stay at home before school start compare in educational outcomes with children who attend public day care. Earlier studies have shown that participation in public day care can enhance school performance especially among disadvantaged children. In Finland, the child home care allowance scheme supports the...

Olemme keskellä suurta työn murrosta. Työn tulevaisuuteen liittyviä haasteita on helppoa nimetä, mutta työn muutoksen kaltaiset monimutkaiset pitkäaikaiset muutosilmiöt eivät helposti käänny politiikkatoimiksi ja konkreettisiksi ratkaisuiksi. Muutosta on silti mahdollista ohjata yhteisesti tunnistettujen pitkän aikavälin tahtotilojen avulla. Tämän...

Sosiaali- ja terveysministeriö (STM) asetti 13.1.2016 asiantuntijaryhmän (sote-asiantuntijaryhmä), jonka tehtävänä on tukea ja antaa asiantuntemustaan ja näkemyksiään sosiaali- jaa terveydenhuollon uudistuksen valmisteluryhmille. STM pyysi 9.11.2017 asiantuntijaryhmän jäseniltä kirjallista arviota 3.11.2017 päivätystä hallituksen esitysluonnoksesta...

Previous studies have established a robust negative association between unemployment and fertility. Finland has experienced two periods of deep economic recessions within last 25 years, one in the early 1990s and the other during the Great Recession in the 2000s. This study analyzes fertility response to economic recession in Finland through total...

Multiple factors, including marijuana decriminalization/legalization, tobacco endgame discourse, and alcohol industry pressures, suggest that the retail regulatory environment for psychoactive or addictive substances is a dynamic one in which new options may be considered. In most countries, the regulation of tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol is neit...

Background Internationally, the Nordic countries occupy top positions in child well-being. We investigated literature on the overall outcomes of young adults from the most vulnerable backgrounds in the Nordic countries, namely young adults who were placed in statutory out-of-home care (OoHC, i.e. foster care) during childhood in the Nordic countrie...

Yhdysvaltojen osavaltioiden ja tupakkayhtiöiden välisten oikeudenkäyntien ja niitä koskevien sopimusten yhteydessä on tullut viime vuosikymmeninä julkisiksi miljoonia sivuja tupakkayhtiöiden sisäisiä asiakirjoja. Tupakka-asiakirjat kuvaavat teollisuuden toimintaa paitsi Yhdysvalloissa myös lähes kaikissa muissa maailman maissa. Kirjassa tarkastella...

I n its strategy meeting on 7 November 2016, the Sipilä Government discussed the increase in the number of NEET youths as well as the causes and problems related to it. The Government decided to prepare an action programme for the Government’s mid-term policy review to prevent and address social exclusion, improve school pass rates, reduce drop-out...

While over-indebtedness has emerged as a new social risk among Europeans as a consequence of economic recessions, its associations with health and disability are poorly understood. This study utilises longitudinal, register-based data to assess the associations of over-indebtedness with disability retirement. Severely over-indebted people were iden...

As the connection between an individual's socioeconomic status and electoral participation originates from the socialization process in childhood and adolescence, inequalities in voting are often argued to be relatively stable throughout the life cycle. However, social mobility during adulthood may mitigate the effects of family background. Using i...

Objectives: We sought to evaluate changes in countries' enacting advertising bans after the effect of ratifying the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Methods: We compared adoption of advertising bans on five areas (TV and radio, print media, billboards, point-of-sale, sponsorship) in countries that did versus did not ratify the...

Objectives More knowledge of the associations between over-indebtedness and health is needed. This study is the first longitudinal register-based study analysing long-term health consequences of severe over-indebtedness. Methods Adult Finnish persons, identified in 2010 as having been over-indebted for at least 15 years, were compared with matched...

Objectives: We sought to evaluate the effect of ratifying the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) on countries enacting smoke-free laws covering indoor workplaces, restaurants, and bars. Methods: We compared adoption of smoke-free indoor workplace, restaurant, and bar laws in countries that did versus did not...

”Ehkä olen riippuvainen unistani. Niissä saan elää omaa menetettyä elämääni”, kirjoittaa eräs suomalainen. Syrjäytynyt ihminen ja kunta -tutkimus kertoo köyhyydestä selviytymisestä. Tässä tutkimushankkeessa kerätyt kirjoitukset iskevät vasten kasvoja. Ihmiset kuvaavat ahdinkoaan ja sairauksiaan, mutta myös ilojaan ja voimavarojaan konkreettisesti j...

Tax breaks for domestic services such as cleaning, home renovation and care work for the elderly and children involve important but conflicting policy goals for post-expansion welfare states. The fundamental issue behind the different policy prescriptions is the role of the welfare state in providing services as opposed to solutions embedded in fam...

We investigates the effects of ratifying the WHO Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FTCT), state capacity, path-dependency and tobacco industry activity on the implementation of effective health warning labels (HWL) on cigarette packs among low and middle income countries (LMIC). Using logistic regression in separate analyses for FCTC Article...

Between September and December 2010 the European Commission Health & Consumer Protection Directorate-General (DGSANCO) held a public consultation on a possible revision of the European Union Tobacco Products Directive (2001/37/EC). We used content analysis of the tobacco industry's and related parties' 300 submissions to the public consultation to...

Purpose – In their income inequality theory (IIT), Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett posit that income inequality is at the heart of social “ills”. However, their critics argue that the hypothesis is biased and that “cherry picking” is used and support for the IIT is obtained by selecting a suitable sample of countries. The paper aims to discuss t...

Objectives: To understand the competition between and among tobacco companies and health groups that led to graphical health warning labels (GHWL) on all tobacco products in India. Methods: Analysis of internal tobacco industry documents in the Legacy Tobacco Document Library, documents obtained through India's Right to Information Act, and news...

Context: In 2012, Washington State and Colorado legalized the recreational use of marijuana, and Uruguay, beginning in 2014, will become the first country to legalize the sale and distribution of marijuana. The challenge facing policymakers and public health advocates is reducing the harms of an ineffective, costly, and discriminatory "war on drug...

Background In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, millions of households have been left with debts that they are unable to manage. Indebtedness may impair the wellbeing of those affected by it for years to come. This systematic review focuses on the long-term consequences of indebtedness on health. Methods The method used in the paper is...

Most inequality research on the relationship between inequality and mental health has focused on cross-country variation. Findings from within-country data are mixed. We examined whether changes in municipal Gini index or in the share of people living in relative poverty were linked to changes in the use of antidepressants in several Finnish munici...

Objectives: We quantified the pattern and passage rate of cigarette package health warning labels (HWLs), including the effect of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and HWLs voluntarily implemented by tobacco companies. Methods: We used transition probability matrices to describe the pattern of HWL passage and change rate in 4 pe...

A prime objective of welfare state activities is to take action to enhance population health and to decrease mortality risks. For several centuries, poverty has been seen as a key social risk factor in these respects. Consequently, the fight against poverty has historically been at the forefront of public health and social policy. The relationship...

Child maintenance schemes differ substantially from each other in terms of underlying philosophy, structure, rules and organisation, and in particular, in their very different outcomes. In Finland the principle is that every child has the right to be adequately provided for and that child maintenance is the right of the child. The main policy focus...