Elias is a Professor of Economics at the London Business School, where he co-directs the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development. Elias, a fellow of the British Academy, also serves as a Managing Co-Editor of the Review of Economic Studies. He holds an LL.B. from the law school of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, a Master's in Public Administration (MPA) from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in economics from the London Business School. After completing his doctorate in 2005, he worked for two years at the Financial Research Division of the European Central Bank. From 2007 to 2012, he worked as Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College. During 2010-2012, he served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Economics Department of Harvard University, and in 2019-2020, he was the Hal Varian Visiting Professor at MIT's Department of Economics. His research covers international finance, political economy, economic history, growth, and development. He has published in leading peer-reviewed journals, among others, in Nature, Econometrica, the Review of Economic Studies, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Political Economy, the American Economic Review, and the Journal of Finance. 

Research Interests: Institutions, Political Economy, Culture and Economics, Macroeconomic Performance, Economic History.