Short Bio

Which are the main areas of societal challenges in which your research aims to address and make significant contributions?

“My primary research in time series econometrics and macroeconometrics aims to develop robust and uniform methods with improved estimation accuracy when identifying and estimating dynamic causal effects in economic models using nonstationary data. In particular, currently my research, which was initiated during my Postdoc at the University of Helsinki, aims to develop identification and estimation techniques for non-Gaussian time series under the presence of near unit roots. Overall, these econometric tools are commonly used by practitioners both in academia and in industry for policy making which emphasizes the importance of this line of research.” Dr. Christis Katsouris, Ph.D.

“Moreover, part of a previous line of research with Dr. Christiana Ierodiakonou who is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cyprus School of Economics and Management has focused on the impact of welfare state regimes across main European economies to the employment trajectories of young people. We found that young participants who belonged to households with high debt burden were more likely to be classified to the group with high volatile employment trajectories, a phenomenon occurred more frequent in liberal and southern countries. These results along with participation to various econometric workshops, motivated my recent research interest in identifying optimal treatment regimes for subpopulations using machine learning methods and novel causal inference techniques.” Dr. Christis Katsouris, Ph.D.    

“Additionally, in another previous research project at UCL, under the supervision of Prof. Gabriella Conti, we investigated the determinants of pregnant women participating into child development programs. Addressing research questions about the causal effects of optimally selected combinations of treatments is of relevance to both practitioners and policy-makers. For example, when examining the impact of early childhood interventions, researchers often focus on assessing the effects in health and economic outcomes within certain subgroups defined based on the outcome that would occur in the absence of program participation. These methods are also useful when identifying optimal treatment effects for cash-transfer programs or as cash-based anticipatory action to forecasted extreme climate events.” Dr. Christis Katsouris, Ph.D.

What impact will your research have to the academy and beyond?

“My research conducted during both my PhD degree at the University of Southampton and my Postdoctoral work at the University of Helsinki, contributes towards the development of econometric methodologies for identification and estimation of time series models in the presence of persistence and nonstationarity of unknown forms. Moreover, based on suitable econometric assumptions that simulate macroeconomic environments, allows to measure the effects of monetary and fiscal policy shocks on economic time series. All the novel econometric estimation and inference procedures I propose through my research require a lot of creativity and critical thinking, that often expand beyond boundaries of existing approaches. 

Along with excellent colleagues across various academic institutions, we work collaboratively in order to develop econometric and machine learning methods for 'big data'; as part of the research activities of the newly formed Institute of Econometrics and Data Science that conducts independent and innovative research spanning the areas of study of Econometrics and Data Science.” 

Dr. Christis Katsouris, Ph.D.

What is your opinion about the public debate on retirement age in academia?

“I believe that having a reasonable retirement age in academia is important for many reasons. To provide an objective view, let's consider the following thought experiment: imagine pushing the retirement age for academic researchers from 65 to 70 and then from 70 to 75, and let's quantify the relative changes with respect to the number of openings for young prospective entries in academic ranks in both cases.”

“Moreover, creating high barriers to entry for young PhD graduates can reduce overall quality of research and decelerate the advance of knowledge. Limited opportunities may also discourage talented young researchers contemplating academic careers and reduce the pool of talent for years to come.  A deterioration in the quality of research may have adverse spillovers on the rate of advancement in productivity and research innovation.”

What are the main challenges faced by workers at the beginning or towards the end of their career?

“Becoming a retiree is probably similar to becoming unemployed; the deeper issues of meaning, relevance and identify that both states can bring to the surface might be more significant to some workers. I mean we spend most of our lives working so we basically end up thinking that what we do, is what we are. This culture encourages workers to think of themselves and their values in terms of their use values. As a result, when workers loose their job status and occupational prestige, it creates an existential issue; one that challenges one's idea of oneself, one's place in the world, and one's usefulness.”  

How would you characterize your teaching philosophy and what are your main contributions to enhancing the student learning experience?

“As an econometrician by training, my teaching philosophy, after receiving formal skills-based training on best practices in teaching and learning, revolves around the pillars of providing opportunities to students for upskilling while respecting learning styles and learning differences. In particular, I focus on fostering a positive teaching environment which emphasizes the development of quantitative skills - following recent research advances in econometrics with machine learning which promote deeper understanding of economic theories. During classes, lectures and seminars, I focus on class participation and student engagement using a combination of online platforms (e.g., Moodle, Blackboard), econometric software and code editors (e.g., R, Matlab, Stata, Eviews), as well as lecture notes and slides. Lastly, recent advances in the economics and econometrics literature are discussed. The use of research-led teaching approaches provides evidence-based analyses on economic and finance theories, in the context of current issues.” 

Dr. Christis Katsouris, Ph.D.

How do you think the values of equality, fairness and belonging impact the workplace environment?

“These considerations should indeed be part of our recruitment and retention procedures, as turns out to be more important elements than we previously thought. An alternative strategy to planning different arrangements for neurodivergent individuals, is to plan how inclusive actions can be incorporated in procedures and tasks in order to ensure economic development and growth for all. In fact, studies from the labour economics literature have shown that it may not only be the hierarchy structure of firms, but also the mix between workers of different abilities that impacts the 'balance of happiness'. Thus, teaching and research environments with abundance of 'natural variation', such that richness of expertise and experiences can be the drivers of economic development, growth and innovation; similar to how ecosystems function and evolve. Lastly, and more importantly, to retain talented scientists in academia, there is a clear need for structural reform, especially towards effective postdoctoral mentorship such as mentorship training for both postdocs and their mentors.” 

Dr. Christis Katsouris, Ph.D.