Joosua Virtanen is a PhD candidate at Hanken and Helsinki Graduate School of Economics. Joosua is an empirical economist specialized in big data applications using state-of-the-art methods, including machine learning, either for prediction or causal estimation. His research interests and on-going work are related to economics of entrepreneurship and innovation, and public procurement.
Joosua's first peer-reviewed publication in a highly distinguished journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice develops and demonstrates a machine learning procedure that is able to either substitute or complement human expertise of venture capitalists in deal sourcing. His on-going work in public procurement considers the following themes: (i) using data and machine learning in targeting policy efforts to increase competition in procurement tenders, (ii) the effectiveness of centralized public procurement, and (iii) horizontal objectives (e.g. innovations and environment) in public procurement.
Joosua's latest project is about entrepreneurial traits, studying which IQ and personality qualities are predictive of founding a business and which in turn predict the success of a firm. Part of this and potential other projects on sustainable innovations, Joosua will visit his co-authors in UC Berkeley in September 2023 - April 2024 as a pre-doctoral Fulbright scholar.
