Sir Christopher Pissarides is Regius Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Professor of European Studies at the University of Cyprus. He specialises in the economics of labour markets, economic growth and structural change, and in how these are shaped in the era of automation and artificial intelligence.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, jointly with Dale Mortensen of Northwestern University and Peter Diamond of MIT, for his work on the analysis of markets with frictions, and particularly on how such frictions affect unemployment. Previously, in 2005, he became the first economist outside the United States to receive (jointly with Dale Mortensen) the internationally prestigious IZA Prize in Labour Economics awarded by the Institute for the Study of Labor.
He has published extensively in academic journals and in the press, and his book Equilibrium Unemployment Theory is considered a landmark contribution to the economics of unemployment and has been translated into several languages. He frequently expresses his views in the media on issues concerning the Eurozone and the future of European integration.
He is an elected Member of the Econometric Society, the British Academy, the Academy of Athens, Academia Europaea and several other learned societies. He is also a Lifetime Honorary Member of the American Economic Association.
In 2011, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Makarios III, the highest distinction of the Republic of Cyprus. He was knighted by the British Crown in 2013.
