Christopher A. Pissarides

Christopher A. Pissaridesis a British Cypriot economist who was a corecipient, with Peter A. Diamond and Dale T. Mortensen, of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences “for their analysis of markets with search frictions.” The theoretical framework collectively developed by the three men—which describes the search activity of the unemployed, the methods by which firms recruit and formulate wages, and the effects of economic policies and regulation—became widely used in labour market analysis.

Pissarides grew up in Cyprus and moved to England to study at the University of Essex, where he received a B.A. (1970) and an M.A. (1971) in economics. He later earned a Ph.D. (1973) at the London School of Economics (LSE). After working briefly at the Central Bank of Cyprus, Pissarides returned to academia as a lecturer in economics at the University of Southampton. In 1976 he took a similar position at the LSE and became a full professor 10 years later. Pissarides wrote and lectured widely on labour market theory and policy, and his book Equilibrium Unemployment Theory (1990; 2nd ed. 2000) became a standard text in the field.

Pissarides was honoured by the Nobel committee for his work, frequently conducted with Mortensen, that developed Diamond’s theories involving frictions within search markets—cases in which buyers and sellers do not easily converge—and applied them to the job market. In the course of his research, Pissarides pioneered a coherent theoretical analysis of the dynamics of unemployment, job vacancies, and real wages, and he helped to develop the concept of matching functions. Notably, he found that the more intensely job seekers looked for employment, the more jobs companies would offer because of the ease with which they could fill those positions.

Pissarides earned election to the British Academy in 2002, and in 2009 he joined the executive committee of the European Economic Association, serving as its president in 2011. In 2013 he was named a knight bachelor.