Rodrigo Aranda

Rodrigo Aranda is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Western Michigan University and a Faculty Affiliate at Georgia Policy Labs at Georgia State University. Before joining Western Michigan he was a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for Economic and Social Research at the University of Southern California and at Georgia Policy Labs. Prior to his doctoral studies he worked on poverty measurement and social policy evaluation at Mexico’s National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy. He received his Ph.D. in Economic Analysis and Policy from Tulane University in 2019.

Aranda’s research is in applied microeconomics with a focus on health economics and the economics of aging. His work studies how public policy, high profile events, and other exposures shape health behaviors and related outcomes across the life course. His ongoing projects examine how expanded opportunities to engage in sports affect later life health behaviors, cognitive aging, and the intergenerational transmission of health, as well as how cannabis, food, and related regulations influence obesity, chronic disease, and other health related behaviors.

At Western Michigan he teaches microeconomics and health economics at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He designs dynamic, hands-on courses that fuse cutting-edge AI tools with data-driven activities, creating powerful learning environments where every student can thrive and confidently apply economics in the classroom, the workplace, and everyday life.

Personal website