Stavros Zenios
Stavros Zenios is a Non-resident Fellow at Bruegel. He specialises in sovereign debt issues, especially in relation to the challenges posed by climate change and political risks.
His research concerns the development of stochastic dynamic models for debt sustainability analysis and risk management for sovereigns, on sovereign contingent debt and on the asset pricing effects of political risks.
He speaks English and Greek.
He is a Professor of Operations Management and Finance at Durham University, on leave from the University of Cyprus, where he has been a Professor of Finance and Management Science since 1991. He is a Member of Academia Europaea and of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts. Prior to that, he was a tenured faculty member at the Wharton School, United States, and held visiting positions at MIT, the University of Vienna, the Norwegian High School of Economics and the University of Haifa. He served as Vice chairman of the Cyprus Council of Economic Advisors and on the Board of the Central Bank of Cyprus. He served two terms as President of UNICA-Universities of European Capitals and two terms as Rector of the University of Cyprus. Stavros holds a PhD in Engineering Management Systems from Princeton University.
Disclosure of interests
Featured work
How much of a threat to US debt sustainability is Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act?
The US should start fiscal adjustment as soon as it can if it wants to head off the risk of exploding debt related to Trump’s tax and spending plan
Disaster risk in euro-area bond markets
What investment funds tell us about euro-zone fragility
Sovereigns on thinning ice: debt sustainability, climate impacts and adaptation
Climate change could trigger debt crises, with adaptation providing only partial relief
Climate change is likely to significantly undermine sovereign debt sustainability, especially from the mid-2040s
All work
Analysis
22 September 2025
How much of a threat to US debt sustainability is Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act?
The US should start fiscal adjustment as soon as it can if it wants to head off the risk of exploding debt related to Trump’s tax and spending plan
Podcast
20 August 2025
Disaster risk in euro-area bond markets
What investment funds tell us about euro-zone fragility
Working paper
19 May 2025
Analysis
16 April 2025
Climate change could trigger debt crises, with adaptation providing only partial relief
Climate change is likely to significantly undermine sovereign debt sustainability, especially from the mid-2040s
Working paper
21 January 2025
Are bad governments a threat to sovereign defaults? The effects of political risk on debt sustainability
In this paper, we ask whether the level of political risk in a country threatens its debt sustainability
Analysis
16 December 2024
Incorporating political risk into analysis of sovereign debt sustainability
Political risk is not taken into account when assessing whether countries can manage their debts, but it could be and should be
Memo
04 September 2024
Podcast
17 April 2024
Climate change, the next big financial threat
A warming planet poses new risks to European sovereign debt. How can the continent protect itself?
Policy Brief
27 April 2023
The longer-term fiscal challenges facing the European Union
Since 2020, the European Union has suffered two large shocks, which have created new fiscal challenges for the EU.
Analysis
23 March 2023
The ripple effect of financial education
A financial literacy course for university students in Cyprus also improved the financial knowledge of their parents.