Christopher Pissarides

Christopher Pissarides shared the 2010 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen for their analysis of markets with search frictions. Their work explained how unemployment, job vacancies, and wages are affected by regulation and economic policy in labor markets where matching workers to jobs takes time.

Search and matching theory, developed by Pissarides and his co-laureates, models labor markets as environments where unemployed workers and employers with vacancies must search to find each other, and matches occur randomly rather than instantly. This framework explains why frictional unemployment exists even in healthy economies and how policies like unemployment benefits affect job search behavior.

Pissarides is a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he holds the Regius Professorship of Economics. He also holds positions at the University of Cyprus and has been influential in European economic policy discussions, particularly regarding labor market reform.

The Beveridge curve, central to Pissarides's work, shows the empirical relationship between the job vacancy rate and the unemployment rate—typically, when vacancies rise, unemployment falls. Shifts in this relationship can indicate structural changes in labor market efficiency, such as skills mismatches or changes in matching effectiveness.