Vasilios Plakandaras

PhD candidate
Department of Economics
Democritus University of Thrace
Komotini 69100
email: vplakand@ierd.duth.gr,
billplakandaras@gmail.com

May 2015
AREAS OF INTEREST
Financial Economics

International Economics

Macroeconomic Forecasting
Complex and Non-linear Dynamics
Machine Learning
PUBLICATIONS
2015

Forecasting monthly and daily exchange rates with machine learning

methodologies, with Theophilos Papadimitriou and Periklis Gogas, Journal of
Forecasting, accepted for publication.
"U.S. inflation dynamics on long range data", with Rangan Gupta, Theophilos
Papadimitriou and Periklis Gogas, Applied Economics, published online.
Fiscal Shocks and Asymmetric Effects: a comparative analysis, with Ioannis
Pragidis, Periklis Gogas and Theophilos Papadimitriou, Journal of Economic
Asymmetries, vol. 1, pp. 23-32.
Market Sentiment and Exchange Rate Directional Forecasting, with Theophilos
Papadimitriou, Periklis Gogas and Konstantinos Diamantaras, Algorithmic Finance,
accepted for publication.
Forecasting the U.S. Real House Prices Index, with Theophilos Papadimitriou,
Periklis Gogas and Rangan Gupta, Economic Modelling, vol. 45, pp. 259-267.

2014

"Public Debt and Private Consumption in OECD countries", with Theophilos

Papadimitriou and Periklis Gogas, Journal of Economic Asymmetries, 11, pp. 1-7.

2013
Forecasting the Insolvency of U.S. Banks Using Support Vector Machines (SVM)
based on Local Learning Feature Selection, Journal of Computational Economics and
Econometrics, with Theophilos Papadimitriou, Periklis Gogas and John Mourmouris,
vol. 3(1/2), pp. 83-90.
"Directional forecasting in financial time series using support vector machines: the
USD/Euro exchange rate", with Periklis Gogas and Theophilos Papadimitriou, Journal
of Computational Optimization in Economics and Finance, vol. 5 (2), pp. 125-139.

CONFERENCES PRESENTATIONS
2015

Monetary Exchange Rate Models in a Small Open Economy with Alternative

Inflation Expectations,
Vasilios Plakandaras, Theophilos Papadimitriou and Periklis
Gogas, 79th IAES conference, Milan, March.
US inflation dynamics on long range data,Vasilios Plakandaras, Rangan Gupta,
Periklis Gogas and Theophilos Papadimitriou, International Conference on Business
and Economics, Athens, Greece, February, 2015.
Monetary exchange rate models in a small open economy with alternative inflation
expectations, Periklis Gogas, Theophilos Papadimitriou, Vasilios Plakandaras and
John Mourmouris, IAES 79th International Atlantic Economic Conference, Milan,
Italy, March 2015..
2013

Forecasting daily and monthly exchange rates with machine learning

techniques, Periklis Gogas, Theophilos Papadimitriou, Vasilios Plakandaras, IAES
77th International Atlantic Economic Conference, Philadelphia, October 10-13, 2013.
"Common Stochastic trends and the Ricardian Equivalence in the OECD", Periklis
Gogas, Theophilos Papadimitriou and Vasilios Plakandaras, 76th International
Economic Conference, Vienna, April, 2013.
"Forecasting USD/EUR daily and monthly exchange rates with machine learning
techniques", Periklis Gogas, Theophilos Papadimitriou and Vasilios Plakandaras, 76th
International Economic Conference, Vienna, April, 2013.
Predicting the insolvency of U.S. banks using Support Vector Machines", Periklis
Gogas, Theophilos Papadimitriou, Ioannis Mourmouris and Vasilios Plakandaras, 76th
International Economic Conference, Vienna, April, 2013.
2011

Directional forecasting in financial time series using support vector machines:

The
nd

USD/Euro exchange rate, V. Plakandaras, T. Papadimitrioy, P. Gogas, 2 National

Conference of the Financial Engineering and Banking Society, Athens, December
2011.

EDUCATION

Ph.D. candidate 2011- present, Department of Economics, Democritus University of

Thrace, Komotini, Greece. Areas of specialization: Financial and International

Economics. Thesis title: Forecasting financial time series with machine learning
methodologies.
Masters degree, 2011, with distinction, Department of Economics, Democritus
University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece.nd Dissertation title: Forecasting exchange
rates with machine learning techniques. 2 among 34 graduates.
Bachelors degree in Economics 2009,th Department of Economics, Democritus
University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece. 8 among 134 graduates.
Army Officer 2002, Greek Military Academy, Athens, Greece. 17 th among 280
graduates.
SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS

2009-2011, Graduate Scholarship for Exceptional Performance, Department of

Economics, Democritus University of Thrace.

RESEARCH PROGRAMS GRANTS

Researcher in the Thalis research grant 2011-2015 (MIS 280929) financed by the
European Union under the general title Study and Forecasting of economic time
series with machine learning techniques.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Research Analyst under the THALES project with main research field in financial and
macroeconomic forecasting.
1998- present, Greek Army Officer, Captain (Economics).

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Informatics (Undergraduate level)

Software in Applied Economics Matlab and R (Undergraduate and Mastery level)
Supervision of Master and PhD students (Seminars, Supervision and mentoring)

QUALIFICATIONS

Languages: Greek (native), English (fluent), German (Advanced), Italian (operational

level).
Advanced user of statistical and mathematical software as Matlab, R, SPSS, Eviews,
Gretl.

OTHER INFORMATION

I am a reviewer for Applied Economics.

I am married and a father of two daughters.