Biography

Myrna Wooders, Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University, is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, Editor of Journal of Public Economic Theory, President of the Association of Public Economic Theory, Founding Editor of Economics Bulletin, Charter Member of the Game Theory Society, Economic Theory Fellow, and has been an elected member of the Game Theory Society Council. She has held prior positions at University of Warwick, University of Toronto, and State University of New York (in reverse order). She has also served on a number of committees dealing with the status of women in the Economics Profession (see below for details).

Myrna’s current research continues her work on coalition and club theory, from both cooperative and noncooperative perspectives. She is also turning to experimental economics, especially discrimination, and also privacy and other topics from a theoretical and behavioral perspective.

Since completing her PhD under the supervision of Professor Leo Hurwicz, Professor Wooders has researched primarily in the areas of public economic theory, game theory and network theory. She has published extensively on club theory, the theory of local public goods and coalition theory and also on other topics including networks, the battle of the sexes (over the distribution of male surplus), and the growth maximizing distribution of income. Her publications include articles in Econometrica, Journal of Economic Theory, Games and Economic Behavior and other leading journals in economics. In the area of mathematics, Professor Wooders has published in Mathematics of Operations Research and Optimization. Professor Wooders has held visiting appointments at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), Paris 1, Yale, Bonn, CentER for Economic Research (Tilburg), Hebrew University, CORE (Louvain-la-Neuve), the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and California Institute of Technology, among other institutions. She is frequently invited to give keynote and plenary talks.

Her co-authors number over 45, and include Nobel Laureate Reinhard Selten (Bonn) and Robert Aumann (on an introduction to a special issue), and also Professors Martin Shubik (Yale), and Stef Tijs (Tilburg), two other great scholars who are no longer with us.

Besides her activities in fostering research in public economics as President of the Association for Public Economic Theory, she has organized numerous scientific events, including Program Chair of the 1994 North American Summer Meetings of the Econometric Society.  She has been guest editor of several journals, including Social Choice and Welfare and Games and Economic Behavior. Her recent research continues her work on club theory and coalitional games and new lines of research on stereotyping, and networks.

Myrna Wooders has also served on the American Economic Association CSWEP, as an elected member of the (UK) Royal Economic Association Committee on Women, and as President of the Canadian Women in Economics.  Her contributions included launching a series for CSWEP celebrating the contributions of women who have, in the past, made significant contributions to economics.

In her own view, Professor Wooders’ most notable achievement was obtaining a four-year undergraduate degree (from the University of Alberta) in two and a half years, with kids in tow.