Honorary lecture by a Nobel prize-winner Professor Christopher Pissarides
On Friday, September 16 ICEF hosted an honorary lecture by a Nobel prize-winner, Regius Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance Christopher Pissarides.
Theme: "The Future of Work: Employment in the Age of Robots"
Abstract: As technology advances, robots, artificial intelligence programs and other technologies are expected to do more and more of the work currently performed by humans. Does that mean that there will be no work left for humans to do, as some economists predicted? Will an egalitarian society be one where each one of its citizens owns a robot and sells the products of their robot for income? I will argue that not all industries can be successfully automated; in many service industries, such as healthcare in light of ageing populations, human contact is a vital part of the product experience. Work for humans will always be available. But what about general trends? Will this surge in technological advances create harmful rises in unemployment and inequality? Perhaps not. The lecture will make the case for new policies to redistribute wealth and favour those who have been left behind, without taking away the incentive to work.
The lecture attracted great interest: more than 300 HSE students, teachers, staff and external guests came. In the end of the lecture the 
audience asked Professor Pissarides many questions.
More information about the lecture on HSE portal >>
Professor Pissarides also met with ICEF Directorate and was an honorary guest on ICEF Graduation Ceremony 2016 where he made a speech and presented LSE certificates to MSc graduates.
Christopher Pissarides was born in Cyprus, received his PhD from the LSE in 1973, and works at the LSE since 1976. He made numerous contributions to the economics of unemployment, search theory with applications to the labour market, macroeconomics of growth and structural change. His paper "Job Creation and Job Destruction in the Theory of Unemployment", published in the Review of Economic Studies in 1994 (joint with Dale Mortensen) has set up the agenda for research of macroeconomic implications of job market frictions, and his book 'Equilibrium Unemployment Theory', is a standard reference in the economics of unemployment.
Professor Christopher Pissarides won a Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences in 2010, jointly with Dale Mortensen from Northwestern University and Peter Diamond from MIT. Notably, he is the first actual member of LSE faculty to receive the Nobel Prize in economics in history. He has been knighted in 2013 in recognition of his services to economics science.
