PARIS – Distinguished academic and economist Costas Vergopoulos died in Paris, aged 75.

Part of a group of leftist Greeks who made Paris their home in the 70s, Vergopoulos received his PhD from the Sorbonne and held a professorship in political economy at the University of Paris VIII.

He taught and lectured at several other universities as well, including Panteion, Princeton, and New School, and was frequently invited to lecture at Latin American higher educational institutions.

An author of several books, in Greece he was best known for “The Agrarian Question in Greece,” originally published in French in Paris (1977). He had also served as consultant to the European Union, UNESCO, the United Nations Development Program and the Asia-Europe Meeting.

Messages of condolences were issued by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, SYRIZA party, and the president of parliament Nikos Voutsis among others.