Sir Christopher Antoniou Pissarides (; ; born 20 February 1948Prof Christopher Pissarides
at debretts.com) is a Cypriot economist. He is

Regius Professor A Regius Professor is a university Professor (highest academic rank), professor who has, or originally had, Monarchy of the United Kingdom, royal patronage or appointment. They are a unique feature of academia in the United Kingdom and Republic ...

of Economics at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

, and Professor of European Studies at the University of Cyprus. His research focuses on

macroeconomics Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole. This includes regional, national, and global economies. Macroeconomists study topics such as output (econ ...

labour economics Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of the Market (economics), markets for wage labour. Labour (human activity), Labour is a commodity that is supplied by labourers, usually in exchange for a wage paid by demanding ...

economic growth In economics, economic growth is an increase in the quantity and quality of the economic goods and Service (economics), services that a society Production (economics), produces. It can be measured as the increase in the inflation-adjusted Outp ...

, and

economic policy ''Economic Policy'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Oxford University Press, Oxford Academic on behalf of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the Center for Economic Studies (University of Munich), and the Paris Scho ...

. In 2010 he received the Nobel Prize in Economics along with Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen, "for their analysis of markets with theory of search frictions."

Early life

Pissarides was born in

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

, Cyprus, into a

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

family from the village of Agros. He first studied at the Pancyprian Gymnasium in Nicosia. After serving in the

Cypriot National Guard The National Guard of Cyprus (), also known as the Greek Cypriot National Guard or simply the National Guard, is the military force of the Republic of Cyprus. It consists of air, land, sea and special forces elements, and is highly integrated wit ...

, he attended the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. The university comprises three camp ...

, where he received undergraduate and graduate degrees in

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

. He then studied at the

, where he received a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in economics, writing a thesis titled ''Individual behaviour in markets with imperfect information'' under the supervision of Michio Morishima.

Career

Pissarides is

of Economics at the

, where he has taught since 1976. He is chairman of the Centre for Macroeconomics, which deploys economists from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, the London School of Economics, the

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

, and the

National Institute of Economic and Social Research The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), established in 1938, is Britain's oldest independent economic research institute. The institute is a London-based independent UK registered charity that carries out academic researc ...

. He has held a lectureship at the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

(1974–76), and visiting professorships at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

(1979–80) and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

(1990–91). He served as the chairman of the National Economy Council of the

Republic of Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the third lar ...

during the country's financial crisis in 2012, and resigned to focus on his academic work at the end of 2014. In 2018, in collaboration with Naomi Climer and Anna Thomas, he founded the Institute for the Future of Work, a London-based research and development institute exploring how new technologies transform work and working lives. In February 2020, Greek prime minister

Kyriakos Mitsotakis Kyriakos Mitsotakis (, ; born 4 March 1968) is a Greek politician currently serving as the prime minister of Greece since July 2019, except for a month between May and June 2023. Mitsotakis has been president of the New Democracy (Greece), New ...

appointed Pissarides to the chairmanship of a committee tasked with drafting a long-term growth strategy for the country. Since September 2020 he has been chairman of the economic council of EuroAfrica Interconnector. In June 2021, it was announced that he would lead a review into the future of work and wellbeing, a three-year collaboration between the Institute for the Future of Work,

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

, and Warwick Business School, funded by a £1.8 million grant from the Nuffield Foundation. The Pissarides Review into the Future of Work and Wellbeing was launched in March 2022.

Academic contributions

One of Pissarides' papers, "Job Creation and Job Destruction in the Theory of Unemployment" (with Dale Mortensen), was published in the '' Review of Economic Studies'' in 1994. He has also written the book ''Equilibrium Unemployment Theory'', a study of the macroeconomics of unemployment.

Awards and honours

* Fellow of the

Econometric Society The Econometric Society is an international society of academic economists interested in applying statistical tools in the practice of econometrics. It is an independent organization with no connections to societies of professional mathematicians o ...

, 1997 *

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

, 2002 * Fellow of the

European Economic Association The European Economic Association (EEA) is a learned society, professional academic body which links European economists. It was founded in the mid-1980s. Its first annual congress was in 1986 in Vienna and its first president was Jacques Drèze. ...

, 2005 * IZA Prize in Labor Economics, jointly with Dale Mortensen, 2005 * Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Economic Association The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics, with approximately 23,000 members. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Review, an ...

, 2011 * Vice-president of the

, President in 2011 * Nobel Prize in Economics in 2010, jointly with Dale Mortensen, Peter A. Diamond, for "analysis of markets with search frictions" * The

College Historical Society The College Historical Society (CHS) – popularly referred to as The Hist – is a debating society at Trinity College Dublin. It was established within the college in 1770 and was inspired by the club formed by the philosopher Edmund ...

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

awarded Pissarides its ''Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse'' in 2012 * In 2013, Knighted in the 2013 Birthday Honours for "services to economics." *

Member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the Academy of Athens, 2015 * Honorary Doctorate from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 2025.

Selected works

Nobel Prize 2010-Press Conference KVA-DSC 8011

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Description
and chapter-previe
links.
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References

External links

Christopher A Pissarides
personal page at

Christopher Pissarides
personal website * including the Nobel lecture on 8 December 2010 ''Equilibrium in the Labour Market with Search Frictions''

an

at Research Papers in Economics/RePEc
Christopher Pissarides
commemorative

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...

issued from the Cyprus Post Office, 8 June 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pissarides, Christopher A. 1948 births Living people Cypriot Nobel laureates Cypriot economists Labor economists Members of the Academy of Athens (modern) Fellows of the Econometric Society Fellows of the British Academy Knights Bachelor Nobel laureates in Economics 20th-century British economists 21st-century British economists Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of the University of Essex Academics of the London School of Economics Academics of the University of Southampton Academic staff of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Eastern Orthodox Christians from Cyprus People educated at Pancyprian Gymnasium People from Nicosia People from Limassol District Academic staff of the University of Cyprus Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom