He has worked on numerous topics, such as labor markets, business cycles, and economic growth and development.
Azariadis studied engineering in the National Technical University of Athens before earning his MBA and PhD in economics at Carnegie Mellon during 1969–1973.
Later Azariadis demonstrated that there are ways in which uncertainty is structured that imply that wages cannot perform their risk insurance role and simultaneously produce full employment.
Azariadis contributed to clarifying the concept of sunspot equilibrium developed by David Cass and Karl Shell.
By doing that, he could demonstrate fluctuations can emerge endogenously in a neoclassical model of equilibrium in which prices are flexible and expectations are rational.