Education

2008 Bradley University, B.S./B.M.
2014 University of Wyoming, Ph.D.

Courses Taught

Game Theory and Strategy
Intermediate Microeconomics
Principles of Microeconomics
Foundational Economics for Managers (graduate-level)

Career Specialties

Aaron D. Wood is a microeconomist with research and teaching fields that include game theory, agent-based modeling, energy economics, environmental and natural resource economics, and behavioral and experimental economics.

Professional and Community Activities

Wood’s primary research agenda combines evolutionary game theory and agent-based modeling into a methodological toolkit to advance economics as an evolutionary science and to study a class of behavioral problems difficult to address with orthodox economics techniques. In particular, his approach studies problems in which economic agents learn, experiment, act on emotion and rely on heuristics to guide their choices within strategic settings that develop across time. His primary application for this toolkit is behavioral energy economics, with a focus on the evolution of global petroleum markets in the 1960s and 1970s. A paper from this research was published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and it was co-authored with Charles F. Mason and David Finnoff. Current research in this area examines COVID-19 transmission in resource-dependent communities and agent behavior in the context of online health communities.

Additionally, Wood conducts research in the areas of behavioral and experimental economics, environmental and natural resource economics, and economics education, among others. He published a paper examining the impact of information on consumer behavior in the context of climate change with Jason F. Shogren and Onur Sapci in Climatic Change, he published a paper on teaching artificially-scarce goods in introductory microeconomics in the International Review of Economics Education, and he published two papers on intergenerational narcissism and higher education with Karla Borja and Leon Hoke in the Journal of Management Education and College Teaching. Current research includes studying optimal Pigouvian taxes in the context of climate change, resource use and population growth, modeling issues from behavioral economics using neoclassical microeconomics, and examining the impact of strategic alliances on firm performance.

Wood has presented his research at regional and national conferences, and he is a reviewer for several journals in the areas of environmental economics, energy economics, and economics education. He has experience as a consultant for private firms and government, primarily conducting economic impact analyses and consulting for lawsuits and legal matters in sectors that include energy, natural resources, hospitality and tourism. Wood is also a jazz pianist, and he is active in the Episcopal Church.

Publications:

Wood, Aaron D., Charles F. Mason, and David C. Finnoff. 2016. “OPEC, the Seven Sisters, and Oil Market Dominance: An Evolutionary Game Theory and Agent-Based Modeling Approach.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 132(B): 66-78.

Sapci, Onur, Aaron D. Wood, and Jason F. Shogren. 2016. “Can Verifiable Information Cut Through the Noise about Climate Protection? An Experimental Auction Test.” Climatic Change 134: 87-99.

Wood, Aaron D. 2017. “A Model to Teach Non-Rival and Excludable Goods in Undergraduate Microeconomics.” International Review of Economics Education 24: 28-35.

Wood, Aaron D., Karla Borja, and Leon Hoke. 2020. “Classroom Policy and Narcissistic Behavior: A Game-Theoretic Approach.” College Teaching 69(1): 43-51.

Wood, Aaron D., Karla Borja, and Leon Hoke. 2020. “Narcissism for Fun and Profit: An Empirical Examination of Narcissism and Its Determinants in a Sample of Generation Z Business College Students.” Journal of Management Education.

Honors and Awards

2020 Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award (this award recognizes the teacher of the year in the Sykes College of Business)
2014 PIE (Promoting Intellectual Engagement in the First Year) Teaching Award Winner at Wyoming
2013 PIE (Promoting Intellectual Engagement in the First Year) Teaching Award Winner at Wyoming
2012-2013 Anadarko Fellowship for Excellence in Energy Scholarship