John Thanassoulis

John is the Professor of Financial Economics at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, an Associate Member of the Oxford-Man Institute at the University of Oxford, and an Associate Member of Nuffield College, Oxford University. For nine years prior to this he was the Heyman/Moritz Official Student (Fellow) of Economics at Christ Church, Oxford and a University Lecturer in the Department of Economics, Oxford University. John is a member of the UK Competition Commission Academic Panel, an academic advisor to OFCOM, on the steering panel for the Department of Business Innovation and Skills research into Metrics and Models for Long-Term Investment, Treasurer of the Blackfriars Overseas Aid Trust (charity number 288585), and was a Non-Executive Director of Oxford Investment Partners (OXIP) until its acquisition by Towers Watson.

John was educated at both Oxford and Cambridge, studying Mathematics followed by Economics. At Oxford John ran the academic side of the Oxford University Business Economics Programme, and he explains current economic issues on radio and TV. John has been a visiting professor at the Bank of England, the Banque de France, and TSE, Toulouse.



John is an economic theorist specialising in the scientific analysis of strategic decision making. He applies these tools to the fields of Executive Pay, Finance and Financial Stability, and Industrial Organization. His current major research projects include the link between bankers’ pay and financial stability; how to correct bonuses to prevent excessive risk taking; access to credit and firm performance; the impact of short term shareholders on CEOs and on bubbles in productive assets; upstream mergers and competition law; bundling as a pricing strategy; and the analysis of consumer bargaining.

After completion of his academic studies, and before returning to academia in 2004, John worked first in the telecommunications industry and then as an antitrust consultant. His antitrust and strategy work has covered sectors including finance, advertising, fmcg and transport.