In 2020, the ‘Pissarides Commission’ – set up by the Greek Government – published its recommended development plan for the economy. How far have the goals of the Pissarides Commission - to boost productivity, increase exports, better connect production with technology and innovation, and support employment – been met so far? And, fresh from its major political victory in the recent elections, what should the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis be prioritising to strengthen Greece’s prospects?

Meet our speaker, discussant and chair 

Sir Christopher Pissarides is the 2010 Nobel Prize laureate in economics. He holds the Regius Chair of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Chair of European Studies at the University of Cyprus. He is a macroeconomist who specialises in the economics of labour markets, economic growth and structural change, especially as they relate to obstacles to free-market clearing. In the last decade he has worked extensively on the employment implications of automation and artificial intelligence and on the emergence of China as a global economic power. He has written several books and contributed extensively to professional journals, magazines and the press. He has received several prizes, awards and prestigious Academy fellowships for his work, including the Grand Cross of the Republic of Cyprus and a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.

George Alogoskoufis is Professor (since 1990) and former Chairman (2020-2022) of the Department of Economics at the Athens University of Economics and Business. Since 2009 he has been a Research Fellow at the Hellenic Observatory of the London School of Economics, as well as a Fellow of the European Economic Association. For three academic years between 2016 and 2019 he was Professor in the Konstantinos Karamanlis Chair at the Fletcher School of Tufts University in the USA. From September 1996 to October 2009 he was a member of the Hellenic Parliament, while from March 2004 to January 2009 he was Minister of Economy and Finance. He holds a Ph.D in Economics from LSE (1981) and specialises in macroeconomics and international economics. He has published seven books and over fifty papers in some of the top academic journals in Economics (American Economic Review, The Journal of Political Economy, The Economic Journal, The European Economic Review, The Journal of Monetary Economics, The Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Economica and others) with many references and citations in the international literature. His most recent book, Dynamic Macroeconomics, a graduate textbook, was published in 2019 by MIT Press.

Vassilis Monastiriotis is Professor of Political Economy and Eleftherios K. Venizelos Chair in Contemporary Greek Studies

More about this event

The Hellenic Observatory (@HO_LSE) is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. It engages in a range of activities, including developing and supporting academic and policy-related research; organisation of conferences, seminars and workshops; academic exchange through visiting fellowships and internships; as well as teaching at the graduate level through LSE's European Institute.

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