Dr Christina Laskaridi

Professional biography

Christina is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Economics at The Open University and Visiting Senior Fellow at the Grantham Institute of the LSE. She is an associate of St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford.

Christina leads CETEx’s work at the Grantham Institute on sovereign debt and debt sustainability. 

She has held research and teaching posts at UCL, SOAS, Duke University, King's College London and Columbia University. Her PhD in Economics from SOAS, University of London, received the 2022 Joseph Dorfman Best Dissertation prize by the History of Economics Society. She led a grant on Environment-related financial risks and regulatory capital requirements funded by INSPIRE (International Network for Sustainable Financial Policy Insights, Research and Exchange).

Research interests

Christina is an expert in the political economy of sovereign debt, international organisations and monetary and debt debates, and how these intersect with the growing climate emergency. She is working on the history of 'debt sustainability' examining the interaction between policy, theory and measurement.

Christina uses her expertise to advise on debt and development issues, such as to UN Women, the OHCHR’s Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, UNCTAD, the Overseas Development Institute, and several NGOs working on sovereign debt issues.

Christina co-convened the OU Economics Seminar Series, The Politics of Economics seminar series at the University of Cambridge, and helps to produce the history of economics podcast Ceteris Never Paribus. She was a Research Fellow at Duke University’s Center for the History of Political Economy.

Publications:

• Backhouse, R., Forder, J. and Laskaridis, C. (2023) The Natural Rate of Unemployment and the NAIRU European Economic Review, Article 104563
• Laskaridis, C. (2023) ‘International financial architecture and feminist reforms’ in Bohoslavsky and Rulli, Feminism in Public Debt (too) A Human Rights Approach, EDULP, Buenos Aires.
• Laskaridis, C. (2023), ‘Refusing to Improve: Sovereign debt repayment difficulties and the political economy of inertia in UNCTAD, 1964 – 1979’ in Sylla, N. S ‘Imperialism and Global South Debt’, Springer, New York.
• Stubbs, T., Krin​g, W., ​ Laskaridis, C., Kentikelenis, A., and Gallagher, K. 2021 'Whatever it takes? The global financial ​safety net, Covid-19, and developing countries', World Development, Vol. 137  
• Weisbrot, M., Laskaridis, C.,  Arauz, A., and Sammut, 2021, IMF Surcharges: Counterproductive and Unfair, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) Report, Washington, DC.  
• Laskaridis, The Gendered Impacts of the IMF’s Harmful Surcharges Policy, CEPR Blog, 15/April/2022
• Laskaridis, C., 2021, 'When push came to shove: COVID-19 and debt crises in low-income countries', Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 42(1-2)  
• Bonizzi, Griffiths, and Laskaridis, ‘Private lending and debt risks of low‑income developing countries’, Overseas Development Institute Report
• Laskaridis, C, 2020,​ ‘Actions and proposals for Covid 19 debt crisis resolution - a summary of the debate’ UNCATD DA-COVID 19 Project paper 16/21
• Laskaridis, C. 2020, 'More of an Art than a Science: The IMF’s Debt Sustainability Analysis and the Making of a Public Tool', Œconomia ­­ History / Methodology / Philosophy, 10(4)   
• Laskaridis, 2020, Perpetuating Divides Between Creditors and Debtors, Global Dialogue, Vol 11.2
• Bayliss, Bonizzi, Dimakou, Laskaridis, Sial and Van Waeyenberge, ‘The use of development funds for de-risking private investment 2020, Directorate-General for External Policies, European Parliament.
• Laskaridis, C, 2019, ' Multilateral debt relief, the long road to where', UNCTAD 12th Debt Management Conference, Palais des Nations, Geneva.
• Bonizzi, Laskaridis and Toporowski, 2019, Global Liquidity, the Private Sector and Debt Sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa, Development and Change, Vol 50 (5), pp.  1430-1454
• Laskaridis, C., and Syrmaloglou, A. (2019), "Two Sticks and One Carrot: Public Debt and the International Financial Commission in Greece 1854-1859", Œconomia, 9-4 | 2019, 797-829.

Teaching interests

Christina enjoys engaging students with economics through an appreciation of its historical development and evolving controversies.  She chaired the DD126 Module Team Economics in Context, is currently charing the production of DD320 and worked on DD321 'Economics for a changing world'.