Christopher A. Pissarides

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Lore & Background

Pissarides was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, into a Greek Orthodox family from the village of Agros. He first studied at the Pancyprian Gymnasium in Nicosia. After serving in the Cypriot National Guard, he attended the University of Essex, where he received undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics. He then studied at the London School of Economics, where he received a PhD in economics, writing a thesis titled 'Individual behaviour in markets with imperfect information' under the supervision of Michio Morishima. He has taught at the London School of Economics since 1976. He has held a lectureship at the University of Southampton (1974–76), and visiting professorships at Harvard University (1979–80) and the University of California, Berkeley (1990–91). He served as the chairman of the National Economy Council of the Republic of Cyprus 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. In February 2020, Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis 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, 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.

Reader's Guide

Pissarides' significance lies in his foundational contributions to the theory of search frictions in labour markets, for which he shared the 2010 Nobel Prize. His work, particularly the 1994 paper 'Job Creation and Job Destruction in the Theory of Unemployment' with Dale Mortensen, and his book 'Equilibrium Unemployment Theory', provided a framework for understanding how unemployment, vacancies, and wages interact in markets with imperfect information. This research has influenced macroeconomic policy and labour economics globally. Beyond academia, he has applied his expertise in policy roles, including advising Cyprus during its financial crisis and leading initiatives on the future of work. His legacy includes shaping modern labour market analysis and informing policy responses to technological change and unemployment.

Did You Know?

• Pissarides was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, into a Greek Orthodox family from the village of Agros.
• He served in the Cypriot National Guard before attending university.
• His PhD thesis at the London School of Economics was titled 'Individual behaviour in markets with imperfect information' and was supervised by Michio Morishima.
• He was knighted in the 2013 Birthday Honours for 'services to economics.'
• A commemorative postage stamp featuring Pissarides was issued by the Cyprus Post Office on 8 June 2011.

Academic Career & Research Focus

Born in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1948, Pissarides built a career spanning nearly five decades of teaching and research. After earning his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Essex and completing his doctorate at the London School of Economics under the supervision of Michio Morishima, he settled into academia in London. He has held the Regius Professorship of Economics at LSE since 1976, making him one of the institution's most enduring faculty members. His scholarly interests centre on macroeconomics, labour economics, economic growth, and policy design. Beyond his home institution, he served as a lecturer at the University of Southampton in the mid-1970s and held visiting positions at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. As chairman of the Centre for Macroeconomics, he brings together economists from Cambridge, LSE, University College London, the Bank of England, and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. His major written contributions include the influential textbook Equilibrium Unemployment Theory and a series of landmark papers on job matching, vacancy dynamics, and structural economic change.

The Nobel Prize & Search Frictions Theory

In 2010, Pissarides shared the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences with Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen, recognised for what the committee described as their analysis of markets with theory of search frictions. This work fundamentally reframed how economists understand labour markets: rather than assuming workers and employers find each other instantaneously, the theory models the time, effort, and information gaps that separate job seekers from vacancies. A cornerstone of this research is the 1994 paper co-authored with Mortensen and published in the Review of Economic Studies, which formalised how firms create and destroy positions in response to economic conditions. Pissarides delivered his Nobel lecture on 8 December 2010, titled Equilibrium in the Labour Market with Search Frictions, further elaborating the framework. Earlier, in 2005, he and Mortensen had already received the IZA Prize in Labor Economics for related contributions, underscoring the sustained impact of their collaborative work on matching theory.

Public Service & Policy Leadership

Pissarides has repeatedly stepped beyond the lecture hall to shape economic policy at national and international levels. During Cyprus's severe financial crisis in 2012, he was appointed chairman of the country's National Economy Council, a role he held until the end of 2014 when he stepped down to refocus on his academic commitments. In 2018, together with Naomi Climer and Anna Thomas, he co-founded the Institute for the Future of Work, a London-based research body dedicated to understanding how emerging technologies reshape employment and working lives. His policy involvement extended to Greece in February 2020, when Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tasked him with chairing a committee to draft the nation's long-term growth strategy. He also assumed the chairmanship of the economic council for the EuroAfrica Interconnector in September 2020. In June 2021, it was announced that he would lead a three-year review into the future of work and wellbeing, a collaboration between the Institute for the Future of Work, Imperial College London, and Warwick Business School, supported by a £1.8 million grant from the Nuffield Foundation. The Pissarides Review was officially launched in March 2022.

Honours & Recognition Across Disciplines

Pissarides's standing in the global economics community is reflected in a long list of distinctions spanning nearly three decades. He was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 1997, a Fellow of the British Academy in 2002, and a Fellow of the European Economic Association in 2005, a body he later led as president in 2011. His 2010 Nobel Prize was followed in 2011 by election as a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Economic Association. In 2012, the College Historical Society of Trinity College Dublin presented him with its Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse. The British government knighted him in the 2013 Birthday Honours, citing his services to economics. He became a member of the Academy of Athens in 2015, and in 2025 received an honorary doctorate from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Cyprus itself honoured him with a commemorative postage stamp issued by the Cyprus Post Office on 8 June 2011, a rare distinction that placed his image alongside the nation's most celebrated figures.