Costas Lapavitsas
Kώστας Λαπαβίτσας
Costas Lapavitsas in 2013
Born	(1961-01-20) 20 January 1961 (age 63) Thessaloniki, Greece
Nationality	Greek
Academic career
Institution	School of Oriental and African Studies
Field	Public economics, political economy, financialization
School or tradition	Marxism Euroscepticism
Alma mater	London School of Economics Birkbeck, University of London (PhD)
Influences	Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes

Costas Lapavitsas (Greek: Kώστας Λαπαβίτσας; born January 20, 1961) is a professor of economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and was elected as a member of the Hellenic Parliament for the left-wing Syriza party in the January 2015 general election.^[1] He subsequently defected to the Popular Unity in August 2015.^[2]

Academic career

In 1982, Lapavitsas obtained a master's degree at the London School of Economics, followed in 1986 by a PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London. Since 1999, he has taught Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, first as a lecturer and since 2008 as a professor.

Political career

Lapavitsas is known for his criticism of the modern Western financial system,^[3] particularly the Greek government-debt crisis, the European debt crisis and the European Union.^[4] He is also a columnist for the British newspaper The Guardian. In 2007, he founded Research on Money and Finance (RMF), an international network of political economists focusing on money, finance and the evolution of contemporary capitalism.

As early as 2011, Lapavitsas, together with some other Greek economists, has been highly eurosceptic, advocating for Greece abandoning the euro and returning to its former national currency (the drachma) as a response to the Greek government-debt crisis.^[5] On 2 March 2015, Lapavitsas wrote in The Guardian that releasing Greek people from austerity and simultaneously avoiding a major falling-out with the eurozone is an impossible task for the new government of Greece.^[6]

In July 2015, Lapavitsas endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election, saying: "If he succeeds – and I hope he does – he's exactly what Britain could do with, what the Labour Party could do with. I think that would be a very important move for the rest of Europe and for Greece. It would give a boost to the kind of thinking that would be necessary in the rest of Europe that is so sadly lacking at the moment. It would be the best thing to come out of Britain for Europe in a long time".^[7]