Victor Aguiar joins the Department of Economics as associate professor

Simon Fraser University (SFU)’s Department of Economics welcomes Victor Aguiar as he joins the faculty this January as an associate professor.

Originally from Quito, Ecuador, Aguiar moved to the United States in 2012 with his wife to pursue graduate studies. He earned his PhD in Economics from Brown University in 2016 before taking a position as associate professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Western Ontario.

He has been interested in joining the SFU Department of Economics for years. “The department's reputation for cutting-edge research and its progressive, innovative ethos deeply attracted me. SFU's dynamic and 'cool' reputation, alongside a culture that champions innovation, only intensified my desire to be a part of their academic community.”

When he saw the associate professor opening, he jumped at the opportunity.

Bringing research expertise in microeconomic theory, econometrics, and computational economics, Aguiar is a welcome addition to the department. He is fascinated by the challenge of accurately modelling consumer and firm behaviours and transforming these theoretical models into practical applications.

The primary goal of econometrics is to test hypotheses and forecast future trends by employing statistical inference.

Aguiar is excited about his current work on a collaborative project on dynamic random utility, creating a model that accounts for changes in consumer preferences over time while maintaining a consistent distribution of these preferences at the macro level.

He says, “our findings reveal a fascinating paradigm shift: while predicting individual behaviour becomes challenging due to these changing preferences, we can still accurately forecast the population-wide distribution of choices.”

In addition to his impressive research record, Aguiar has been recognized as an exceptional teacher – in 2017 he was named the Graduate Economics Professor of the Year at the University of Western Ontario. He is also an innovator in ways to teach and to test in the times of Chat GPT.

When he’s not working, Aguiar enjoys the simple pleasures – a relaxed hike, travel, and art. “I’m a foodie at heart,” he says, “and love tasting my way through different countries.”

In the Spring 2023 term Aguiar will be teaching ECON 832: Computational Methods in Economics.  You might also find him on Twitter/X, where he admits to spending too much time. “Only when I am bored, of course.”