Michalis Moatsos (M.)
My main interest lies with the evolution of material deprivation and inequalities on a global scale, both in the 21st and previous centuries. In my research the role of prices is of essential importance in both the identification and measurement of poverty. I am also investigating the levels and trends of historical real wages around the world. Lately, I delve into the realm of the rich, by investigating the distribution of wealth in the Netherlands since the mid-19th century.
In terms of thesis supervision, my interests include: Global, regional and national poverty measurement and implications for policy. Between and within countries (economic) inequality. Sustainable development goals (SDG). Wellbeing measurement. Global price datasets (commodities and services, particularly health and education services).
Specific Topics:
- Definitions of poverty around the world (national levels)
- Evolution of income and wealth inequality within countries
- Explaining international patterns of economic inequality
- Poverty, inequality and growth on national, regional or global level
- Policies for achieving SDGs (goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13 and 16)
- Policies and their implementations from the World Bank, IMF, UN and other international institutions in achieving SDGs (goals 1, 2, and 10)
- Multidimensional wellbeing, definition and measurement
- Measurement issues of SDGs and their implication for policy makers
- SDG strategies on national level (goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13 and 16)
- Sources for price datasets on commodities and services (particularly health and education services) around the world.
Expertises
Poverty, Wellbeing, Inequality.
Career history
I have recently (September 2022) been appointed assistant professor of international economics at Maastricht University, and I have been awarded a UKRI postdoctoral fellowship (evaluated through the Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship round of 2021), on the conceptualization and unification of global poverty measurement for the 21st century.\footnote{I am fulfilling the responsibilities of my two placements on a 0.5 fte each.}
My contribution thus far is to challenge the veracity of the official estimates of global poverty; to propose an alternative methodology for poverty measurement and implement methods that estimate the uncertainty of available global poverty statistics. My approach has been recognized by the World Bank Commission on Global Poverty --presided by the late Prof. Sir Tony Atkinson-- by positively citing my work in its official final report. A chapter of my dissertation entitled “Global Extreme Poverty: Present and Past since 1820” was published (2021) in an OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) volume on historical living standards, and I currently serve as a guest editor (2020-2022) and contributor with the Journal of Economic Surveys for a special issue on living standards measurement. Moreover, during my studies on “Multidisciplinary Economics” at Utrecht University (Research Master), I obtained a research assistantship that led to a chapter on “Global Inequality since 1820” published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
I have a clear international profile following the completion of my PhD in 2020. Evidence of this is that I already have 5 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, 2 book chapters published by the OECD, and more than 10 other papers.
Moatsos (2017) is the first attempt in the literature to estimate global extreme poverty using a cost of basic needs method. The method used to estimate the heating energy requirements in that article has been cited and used in Prof. Robert Allen’s American Economic Review article (2017, Allen was a member of the Commission on Global Poverty). Moatsos (2018) offers a critical view of the World Bank’s reception of the report by the Commission on Global Poverty. Former chief economist at the World Bank Kaushik Basu, and the advisory board member of the said commission Sreenivasan Subramanian have acknowledged the value of this contribution by a positive citation in Basu and Subramanian (2020). In late 2020, I have been invited by the International Review of Social History Journal to review the final book by the late Sir Tony Atkinson on “Measuring poverty around the World” (Princeton University Press).
I have given more than 25 presentations (7 invited) in international seminars, workshops, and conferences (listed below), including at the 2016 Nuffield College Economic History seminar, at Oxford University, UK. I co-organized a two-day international workshop (co-sponsors: Posthumus Institute, Utrecht University and Wageningen University) to advance the measurement of long-term well-being with early career and established scholars in the field, such as Prof. Dr. Anne McCants (MIT), the President of the International Economic History Association. At the XIX World Economic History Congress (2022, Paris) I co-organized two sessions on living standards, one of them organized in collaboration with the renowned scholar on global inequality Prof. Dr. Branko Milanovic (CUNY - LIS). At the 2022 International Association for Research in Income and Wealth (IARIW) General Conference I co-organized the session entitled “New Measures of Global Comparisons in Well-Being and Sustainability”, and another session on the “Dynamics of the Wealth Distribution around the world”.
In 2024, I will co-organize with Dr. Dean Jolliffe (Lead Economist, World Bank) a session on global poverty measurement at the 2024 IARIW General Conference entitled "Global Poverty Measurement: Pitfalls and Opportunities". In the same year, again together with Dean, we assemble a selected set of global experts for organizing a thematic week-long workshop in Maastricht on the issue of the (past and present, but foremost the) future of global poverty measurement.