Economics professor wins ERC grant
Professor Elias Papaioannou awarded funding for Africa research
Elias Papaioannou, Professor of Economics at London Business School, has been awarded a four-year Consolidator Grant worth €1.6 million (£1.4 million) by the European Research Council (ERC).
His project looks at the political economy of African development, ethnicity, nation and history. It applies an interdisciplinary approach to study the interplay between modern African nations and ethnicities and help bridge the gap between research in economics and social sciences.
Professor Papaioannou said: “I am honoured and humbled by this prestigious and highly competitive award. The grant will help push the frontier in research on African political economy, addressing some fascinating questions on the colonial and precolonial origins of contemporary African development
The ERC evaluated 2,538 research proposals in the latest round of the award and funded 13% of them. It aims to stimulate scientific excellence by supporting and encouraging the best scientists, scholars and engineers to be adventurous and take risks in their research. It promotes “bottom-up”, investigator-driven research.
Professor Papaioannou’s wider research focuses on international finance, political economy, applied economics, growth and development. He is Academic Director, together with Rajesh Chandy, Professor of Marketing at LBS, of the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development at LBS.