Christopher A. Pissarides

     Christopher A. Pissarides is a British-Cypriot economist and a professor of economics at the London School of Economics. Born in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1948, he received his bachelor's in economics in 1970 and later his master's in 1971 at the University of Essex. He proceeded to go to the London School of Economics where he earned his PhD in 1973 and three years later he became a professor at the very same institution.

   Pissarides specializes in the economics of labor markets, macroeconomic policy, economic growth, and structural change. He is most known for his work and contributions towards Search and Matching Theory which focuses on the interactions between the economy and labor markets. When firms look for employees, they do not immediately find what they need. It requires time and resources for them to find what need resulting in market friction. This friction often times leads to a less than ideal outcome. Pissarides's work has helped in theses types of scenarios and the market as a whole by helping economists understand how regulation and economic policies affect unemployment, job vacancies, and wages. His efforts have earned him and his coworkers, Dale Mortensen of Northwestern University and Peter Diamond of MIT, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize in economics.  He has proceeded to write about his work in multiple professional journals, magazines, and his book, Equilibrium Unemployment Theory.

     Prior to my enrollment in ECON 490, I had no clue who Christopher Pissarides was; however, now that I had the opportunity to do some research, I believe that his work is very interesting. He has helped optimize labor hiring process and has had a huge influence in the world of macroeconomics.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanSeptember 7, 2019 at 5:45 AM

    While I never met Pissarides, I took a course from Dale Mortensen on the micro-foundations of macroeconomics that was really a great class. And Dale was also on my dissertation committee.

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