Ringa Raudla: The world of Policy, Finances and Psychology
Do you know that lucky and privileged feeling to be in a conversation with an incredibly intelligent, strong and accomplished personality? You surely do if you have attended one of the classes of the Professor of Fiscal Governance, Ringa Raudla. We hope this interview will transmit at least a glimpse into her rich academic and personal life.
Lecturing:
1. Research Methods in Social Sciences for PhD students across the university and Master’s students from various programmes (including MA in public sector management and innovation, MA in technology governance and digital transformation).
2. Economic Analysis of Law (or Law & Economics) to the students of MA in Public Sector Management and Innovation.
3. Research seminar for the PhD students of Public Administration programme.
4. Public Finance for undergraduate students of BA in Public Administration and Governance.
5. Strategic and Financial Management in the Public Sector to the students of MA in Public Sector Management and Innovation.
Research topic:
The effects of crises on fiscal policy and budgeting
Favourite book, film, music:
I read a lot of fiction and love listening to music. Picking favourites is, hence, pretty hard.
For example, I love all books by Milan Kundera, especially The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I also love reading authors like Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky, de Botton, Sartre, Ballard, Camus, Huxley.
In terms of music, there are hundreds of artists and bands I like. Just to mention a few: Sigur Ros, Tindersticks, Nick Cave, James Blackshaw, Anna von Hausswolff, Joan Baez, Radical Face, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Angel Olsen, Madrugada, Damien Jurado.
Favourite quote:
I love quotes a lot. My dad and I have even published books with collections of our favourite quotes. But if I had to choose, I would go for this one:
“Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between the stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight.”
― Rollo May
Favourite spot on TalTech campus:
The library café. I like how spacious and airy it is, with lots of light and sunshine.
First job
In his pursuit to teach us some work ethics, my dad got me and my brother a “job” at the parks and maintenance department of my home town, Viljandi, when I was about 9. So we spent about two weeks weeding the flower beds in different parts of the town. Until now, I am not sure whether the few rubles we earned came from my dad or from the city. My first real job was working as a translator for a translation firm in my hometown when I was 17. After I came back from my exchange year in England, I thought it would be good to put my language skills to use and earn some money. I was mostly translating business plans and product instructions — not the most thrilling texts but I thought it was a useful experience.
Politics or Psychology
We often think that we are self-made and that we have chosen our path on our own, but actually, when I analyze my life I realize that the influence of my parents has been pretty profound. My mom is a psychologist, while my dad is a physicist and a politician, and both of them used to work as teachers at some point. Already as a child, I was very much interested in psychology and raided my mother’s bookshelves for some “extracurricular” reading. At the same time, once Estonia became independent my father was elected to the Parliament and we constantly had his colleagues visiting us at home discussing political issues and strategies. This is definitely the reason why at high school I actively participated in competitive debating (mostly about politics but also philosophy) and even represented Estonia at the world championship. What I loved about it was that we had to be able to debate both sides of the issue and the best arguments would win. We debated about issues like climate change, animal rights, abolition of capital punishment and legalization of cannabis. Thanks to the exposure to these topics, I became increasingly interested in public policy and governance.
When it was time to decide on the direction of my future career, I was drawn between Public Policy and Psychology — I was passionate and curious about both. After a long internal debate, I went for the former. I felt very idealistic back then and I wanted to improve policies and, through that, the life of society. It felt like I could have a larger overall impact that way — improve people’s lives through better policies rather than via individual psychological therapy.
Public Finances — separating rhetoric from reality
During my undergraduate studies in Public Administration and Political Science I had great professors in Tartu — Tiina Randma-Liiv and Wolfgang Drechsler, whom I consider my academic parents, and who later became my colleagues at Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance at TalTech. They encouraged me to pursue my PhD in Germany. Since Estonia did not have any local Public Finance professors back then — who would study things from a political science, governance and public administration perspective ‒ it felt like I could fulfil a unique niche. The more I studied Public Finance the more fascinating I found it. Over time, I realized that the knowledge of Public Finance is fundamental in order to understand and influence society. Here is a quote by Schumpeter, which was always a great inspiration to me:
“If we want to know anything about a society or its politics, the best place to start — is its public finances. “ It is so true, because when we analyse how the state allocates expenditure, we are able to separate political rhetoric from reality.
I have been devouring the books by Yuval Noah Harari. One of his core ideas is that money is the universal collective story that almost the entire humanity believes in. This notion has further helped me to frame the importance of my research agenda.
Citizen of the world
Personality-wise, what has influenced me a great deal is all the international experience I have had the opportunity to gather by living in various countries thanks to the opportunities provided to me by various scholarship programmes. Thus, I lived in England for a year when I was 16, spent 6 months in the Netherlands during my undergrad, and did my PhD in Germany, staying there for 5 years. I have also lived in the US for considerable stretches of time and actually, my current family is half Estonian-half American. Therefore, my identity is not specifically centered around any specific nationality.
After finishing my PhD in Germany, the Estonian government did expect something in return for the generous scholarship it had provided me with. Thus, I came back to Estonia in 2009 and stayed. Increasingly, I felt that being a professor in Estonia allowed me to fulfil a unique niche on the Estonian academic landscape and also to introduce the Estonian case to the global scholarly community.
Current research and TalTech courses
One of my core research projects over the past years has been to study the effects of crisis on fiscal policy and budgeting. This topic became important for me in 2008–2009 during the global financial crisis, which coincided with my return to Estonia. Although I study many other issues as well, my favourite topic is still to study the connections between crises and public finance. I have published dozens of articles on the topic and also received the Estonian National Research Award for it in 2018.
The topic is now, once again, extremely relevant. One could even say that the question of how to use public finances to address the covid-19 crisis is more important than ever. Given the extensive economic implications of the global pandemic, that research agenda will certainly continue: I want to study what kinds of fiscal measures different European countries have used during the pandemic and which instruments work better than others in order to cope with the economic recession.
In terms of teaching, I have several courses this semester. Two of them are research-related courses. First, Research Methods in Social Sciences for PhD students across the university and Master’s students from various programmes (including MA in Public sector management and innovation, MA in technology governance and digital transformation). Second, Research Seminar for the PhD students of Public Administration programme. I am very passionate about teaching research methods and it is definitely one of my favourite courses to teach. Even though most of the students in my class are not going to become scientists, I feel it is extremely important for them to understand how science works in order to become better consumers of research. I also try to convince them that science helps us to be skeptical and aware of our biases; in other words, it is a form of arrogance control.
The third course I am teaching is the Economic Analysis of Law (or Law & Economics) to the students of MA in public sector management and innovation. Law and Economics tries to analyze laws, policies or other forms of legal acts by using the ideas of economics, so that we are better able to predict what their effects are. We cannot simply assume that once we have adopted a law, it will achieve its goal. I also introduce my students to Behavioural Law & Economics, which examines how people systematically make mistakes in making decisions, assessing risks and probabilities, and what motivates them. There are many insights from psychology here, which has remained my hobby since childhood. Therefore, for me, teaching this course allows combining several topics I have been curious about for a long time.
Teaching style
My teaching style is very interactive. I like to encourage discussion and debates among students. We know from psychology that the human brain has evolved to best absorb information in the form of stories and specific examples. Therefore, I try to enrich my lectures with materials that would help students to understand the topics the best way possible.
Inspiring students
My students impress me all the time — it is truly one of the most rewarding aspects of my profession that I can continue learning from my students. I have learnt a lot from the students who work as practitioners. I have also found my PhD students to be incredibly inspiring and they introduce me to new topics all the time. So far, I have supervised five PhD students who have completed their theses and I am really happy and grateful that we did some research together. My most recent “doctor-daughter” focused on environmental policies and sustainability transitions in her thesis and thanks to her, this topic is more prominently on my radar now.
