Pia Nilsson

The Department of Economics and Management at the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to join the Agricultural Economics research group on the Viikki campus in Helsinki. The position is embedded in the new Intergenerational Transitions in the Nordics (NEXT) project, which examines how institutional conditions shape intergenerational farm succession and the evolution of farm businesses across Sweden and Finland. The project is comparative in design and uses the contrasting inheritance and gift tax regimes in the two countries to study ownership transitions in agriculture. Sweden abolished inheritance and gift taxes in 2005, while Finland retains them with relief mechanisms. This creates a strong natural comparison for analyzing the timing of succession, the likelihood of within-family transfers, and the consequences of those transfers for farm viability, investment, land-use continuity, and technological development. The postdoctoral researcher will work with harmonized longitudinal administrative register data from Sweden and Finland and contribute to building the Sweden–Finland empirical framework. The work centers on identifying and dating ownership transitions, classifying transfer modes, distinguishing within-family from non-family transfers, and linking succession events to later economic outcomes. The role also includes econometric analysis and the preparation of peer-reviewed journal articles for publication in high-ranking international journals. The position is based in an active research environment within the Agricultural Economics group, with close collaboration with the project team at Jönköping International Business School and the Center for Family Entrepreneurship and Ownership (CeFEO). The project connects agricultural economics with family business research, ownership and governance, entrepreneurship, and applied microeconomics, offering a setting that combines individual research development with collaborative, internationally oriented work. The appointee will be an active member of the department and research group, take part in workshops and joint research activities, and contribute to the project’s empirical development and outputs. The role also includes opportunities to develop an independent research agenda, build international networks, and engage with secure research environments and comparative longitudinal analysis in agriculture.