Chairman of the Greek Government's Council of Economic Advisors and Professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business. He has been a member of the Greek government's Council of Advisors on Employment and Social Policy (2001-2002), National Council for Research and Technology (2001-2005), Council of Economic Advisors (2002-2004 and 2009-2012), Independent Authority for the Evaluation of Tertiary Education (2006-2009) and Advisor to the Prime Minister on Employment and Social Policy (2010-2012).

He is currently a member of the Eurogroup Working Group (EWG) and Economic and Financial Committee (EFC). His academic research focuses on questions of inequality, poverty, social exclusion, returns to education and social policy (especially, the redistributive role of the state). He is Research Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA, Bonn) and Senior Research Fellow of the Hellenic Observatory of the London School of Economics.