Haliassos holds the Chair of Macroeconomics and Finance at Goethe University Frankfurt. He is Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR, UK), Founding Director of the CEPR Network on Household Finance (2015- ), Research Professor and Executive Board member of the IMFS. He is also advisor to the European Central Bank on the Eurozone Survey of Household Finances and Consumption since its inception in 2006 and International Research Fellow of NETSPAR. He has served as member of the Governing Board and of the Research Board of the Think Forward Initiative, as member of the Consultative Working Group of ESMA’s Investor Protection and Intermediaries Standing Committee (2015-2017), as Director of the Center for Financial Studies for two terms (1.2010-12.2015), and he has been Founding Director of SAFE, a multi-million centre of excellence on a Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe (1.2013-3.2015).
Haliassos received a B.A. from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1987 under the supervision of Nobel Laureates James Tobin and William Nordhaus. Prior to joining the faculty of Goethe University Frankfurt in 2004, he was a faculty member at the University of Maryland, and then at the University of Cyprus, where he also served as Deputy Dean of the School of Economics and Business. He has held visiting appointments inter alia at the European University Institute in the Chair of Finance and Consumption, and at the Center of Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF). In addition to having received various teaching prizes, he has been actively engaged in curriculum development, including the design and launch of the Master’s Program in Money and Finance (MMF) at Goethe University.
Haliassos’ research interests lie in Macroeconomics and Finance with emphasis on household finance, where he has been among the early contributors. He has studied household portfolio choice under labor income risk, stockholding behaviour, consumer debt, portfolios of aging households internationally, cultural influences and effects of social interactions on financial behaviour, the distribution of wealth, the impact of credit market imperfections, and the role of financial advice. His research papers have appeared in leading international journals, including the Review of Financial Studies, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Monetary Economics, Management Science, International Economic Review, and Economic Journal. His review papers include contributions to the Journal of Economic Literature, the New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and Finance, and the Handbook of Monetary Economics. His recent RFS paper with T. Jansson and Y. Karabulut received the 2021 Hillcrest Prize of the Review of Financial Studies for “Best Paper in Behavioral Finance”.
Haliassos has coordinated a number of international book projects and journal special issues. Results of a major early project on Household Portfolios, coordinated together with L. Guiso and T. Jappelli, were published by MIT Press in early 2002 and have become a standard reference in household finance. A companion volume on Stockholding in Europe was published by Palgrave Macmillan (2003). He has edited a volume on Financial Innovation: Too Much or Too Little?, which appeared from MIT Press in 2013 and is now in paperback and on MIT Scholarship online. In 2015, he edited a 3-volume collection of Critical Writings in Household Finance (Edward Elgar), and co-edited a volume on Financial Regulation: A Transatlantic Perspective (Cambridge University Press). He has recently co-edited a volume on The Capital Markets Union and Beyond (MIT Press, 2019). He has also co-edited two journal special issues on Household Finance, one for the Review of Finance (2011) and the other for the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance (2015).
Haliassos has also been involved in policy analysis and advice, with articles and interviews published by major German, Greek, and international press establishments. He has edited, together with Yannis Ioannides (Tufts), Thanasis Stengos (Guelph), and Dimitri Vayanos (LSE), the policy blog Greek Economists for Reform throughout its operation (10.2010-9.2018). He has served a two-year term on the Panel of the journal Economic Policy (2010-11), and a three-year term as member of the 11-member Greek National Council on Research and Technology (ESET) advising the Greek government on how to fund and promote research and innovation (2010-13).