Markku Suur-Kujala and Tapio Korhonen awarded Eino H. Laurila national income medal

The Eino H. Laurila national income medal for 2010 has been awarded to MSSc Markku Suur-Kujala and MSSc Tapio Korhonen.

Markku Suur-Kujala has had a long and praiseworthy career at Statistics Finland in the compilation and management of National Accounts. He has contributed to the development of significant National Accounts extensions: In the 1970s he was initiating the compilation of Finnish regional accounts and the present rapid trend indicator of output was developed under his leadership in the 1980s. In the 1990s Markku Suur-Kujala was adapting Finland's National Accounts to the requirements imposed by EU membership and the Economic and Monetary Union.

Markku Suur-Kujala has also advanced tuition in National Accounts both in Finland and abroad - he has, for instance, run training courses in Croatia, Albania and Central Asia. He worked at Statistics Finland from 1969 to 2008.

As economist, Tapio Korhonen has used economic statistics as economic analysing tools in an exemplary and creative manner. He has been able to combine national accounts, financial accounts, balance of payments statistics and monetary and banking statistics and present on their basis logical interpretations of not only the past economic development but also of emergent growing problems. He worked at various departments of the Bank of Finland from 1971 to 2008.

Over the years Tapio Korhonen has also made his expertise available to others. He has given lectures on the financial markets and accounting systems at the University of Helsinki and contributed to the development of statistics in various committees and working groups.

The medals will be handed over to Markku Suur-Kujala and Tapio Korhonen at the meeting of the Finnish Economic Association at Metsätalo, Unioninkatu 40, Helsinki, Finland, at 5 pm on Thursday, 21 October 2010.

The Eino H. Laurila national income medal is awarded as 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 in 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, Statistics Finland, +358 1734 3261; email: firstname.lastname@stat.fi