Costas Lapavitsas

Costas Lapavitsas
Costas Lapavitsas in 2013
Native name	Kώστας Λαπαβίτσας
Born	(1961-01-20) January 20, 1961 (age 56) Thessaloniki
Nationality	Greek
Institution	School of Oriental and African Studies
Field	Public economics
School or tradition	Marxism Euroscepticism
Alma mater	London School of Economics SOAS Birkbeck, University of London

Costas Lapavitsas (Greek: Kώστας Λαπαβίτσας) 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. He subsequently defected to the Popular Unity in August 2015.

In 1982, he 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.

Costas Lapavitsas is known for his criticism of the modern Western financial system, particularly the Greek government-debt crisis, the European debt crisis and the European Union. 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, as well as 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. 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.