Vassilis Monastiriotis

Vassilis Monastiriotis is an economist and economic geographer by training, specialising in three areas of Labour Economics, Economic Geography and Political Economy. He has significant policy engagement on all three areas, including appointments in Experts Committees (e.g., on Regional Incentives policy and on Minimum Wage policy in Greece) and work with international bodies such as the European Commission (DG Regio, DG EMPL, DG EAC), the CEFTA Secretariat and the EBRD.

He has published widely in economics and regional science journals, including Oxford Economic Papers, the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Journal of Regional Science, Regional Studies, Urban Studies, and others; while he has co-authored a number of policy reports and edited books. He has held visiting positions at Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, Groningen University, the GeoDA Center, and elsewhere. He has received funding from the UK Economic and Social research Council, the British Academy, the Royal Geographic Society, the European Commission, and others. In 2008 he received the Moss Madden Memorial Medal in Regional Science. He is Director of the LSE Research Unit on South Eastern Europe and holds affiliations with LSE’s Department of Geography and Environment and the Hellenic Observatory. He is Co-Editor of Spatial Economic Analysis, Committee Member of the British and Irish Section of the Regional Science Association, and member in various professional bodies.

Research Interests

Vassilis Monastiriotis' main research interests are on regional and national labour markets; regional and local socio-economic disparities; labour market policy; macroeconomic policy; and the political economy of reform. Geographically his research focuses on Southeast Europe (including Greece), Britain and the European Union. He has expertise in applied econometrics (panel-data, spatial econometrics, micro-econometrics) and applied Geographical Information Systems analysis.

His current research includes projects on EU Cohesion Policy and Smart Specialisation, Labour market adjustments post-crisis, the geographical determinants of regional convergence, overeducation and occupational sorting, and the impact of minimum wages in Greece. Broader research interests – and areas of PhD supervision – include topics such as The Political Economy of Reforms; The role of Industrial Policy for Economic Development; EU conditionality, Pre-accession and Economic Restructuring; Regional and National Labour Markets (performance, reforms, adjustments); Regional Disparities and Growth; and various topics in Applied Labour Economics.

Teaching responsibilities

Vassilis Monastiriotis is leading a course on Labour Markets and the Political Economy of Europe (EU477), which combines an analytical labour economics treatment of labour market issues with a political economy analysis of employment policies at the EU level; and one of the core courses in the European Institute’s MSc in the Political Economy of Europe (Political Economy of Integration and Fragmentation in Europe – EU492). He is also co-leading a course on The Balkans in Europe: Transition, Democratisation, Integration (EU440), teaching on aspects of economy, regional integration and structural reforms. Other areas of teaching include seminars in the course Political Economy in Theory and History and ad hoc teaching on research methods. He is MSc Academic Advisor at the European Institute and member of its Doctoral Programme Committee.

Public and Policy Engagement

Vassilis Monastiriotis has given numerous media interviews including for Bloomberg, BBC World, BBC News, Sky News, France 24, and others. He has participated in projects and public policy fora for the European Commission (DG Regio, DG EMPL, DG EAC, JRC), the British and Greek governments (UK Department of Trade and Industry, Greek Ministry of Finance, Greek Ministry of Labour, and others), various central Banks (Albania, Greece, North Macedonia) and international organisations such as the Regional Cooperation Council, the CEFTA Secretariat, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and others.