Elias Papaioannou

Elias Papaioannou is a Greek economist and academic. He is Professor of Economics at London Business School, where he holds the Alexander Knaster Chair, and serves as academic director of the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a managing co-editor of the Review of Economic Studies.

Early life and education

Papaioannou was born in Athens, Greece. His father, Miltiadis Papaioannou, served as a minister in governments of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK).

He received a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 1999. In 2001, he completed a Master of Public Administration (MPA) at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He earned a PhD in economics from the London Business School in 2005.

From 2010 to 2012, he was a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Harvard University, where he taught courses in financial economics and political economy. and was appointed to the Alexander Knaster Chair in 2025. He serves as academic director of the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development at LBS.

He has held visiting academic positions at the University of Zurich. During the 2019–2020 academic year, he was the Hal Varian Visiting Professor in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he taught doctoral courses on political economy.

Since 2021, Papaioannou has served as a joint managing editor of the Review of Economic Studies. He previously served as an associate editor of Econometrica from 2016 to 2022, as well as the Economic Journal and the Journal of the European Economic Association.

Papaioannou was elected vice-president of the European Economic Association for 2026, president-elect for 2027, and president for 2028.

Honors and awards

Young Economist Award, European Economic Association (2005) Austin Robinson Memorial Prize, Royal Economic Society (2008) Excellence in Refereeing Award, Journal of the European Economic Association (2014) European Research Council Consolidator Grant, European Research Council (2018), for research on African economic history Innovation in Teaching Award, European Economic Association (2023) Fellow of the British Academy (2024) Honorary doctorate, University of Patras (2025) Responsible Business Education Award, Financial Times (2025)