Gary Thompson

My research continues to focus on consumer demand for all sorts of products from residential water to organic foods. I am currently working on projects analyzing consumer demand for fruits and vegetables, food safety, and health concerns. I thoroughly enjoy applying microeconometric methods for analyzing these food and resource questions.

Though not entirely visible in my CV, since 2002 I have taught our Advanced Applied Econometrics M.S. class in which we work closely with American Express using their proprietary very large data sets to answer real-world business problems posed by American Express staff.  This innovative public-private collaboration with American Express in Phoenix, Arizona and New York City provides M.S. students a unique opportunity work with real data on a real problem and communicate the results in a formal business presentation made by students to American Express staff in Phoenix and NYC.  As part of the department’s specialization in applied econometrics, the capstone course has helped many alumni obtain applied econometrician jobs in financial, energy, health, communications and educational industries.

I currently serve as department head while maintaining an active research and teaching commitment.  If you would like to correspond with me, please send me an email here: gdthomps@email.arizona.edu

Publications

Blumberg, J., Thompson, G. 2021. Nonparametric Segmentation Methods: Applications of Unsupervised Machine Learning and Revealed Preference. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, August 2021, http://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12257

Wang, Xiangrui, Jukwan Lee, Jia Yan, and Gary Thompson. 2018. Testing the Behavior of Rationally Inattentive Consumers in a Residential Water Market. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 92: 344-59, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2018.09.004

Clarke, Andrew, Bonnie Colby and Gary Thompson. 2017. Household Water Demand Seasonal Elasticities: A Stone-Geary Model under an Increasing Block Rate Structure. Land Economics 93 (4): 6008–30, https://doi.org/10.3368/le.93.4.608

Caracciolo, Francesco, Luigi Cembalo, Alessia Lombardi, and Gary D. Thompson. 2014. Distributional Effects of Maize Price Increases in Malawi. Journal of Development Studies 50 (2): 258–75, 

https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2013.833319

Thompson, Gary D., Satheesh V. Aradhyula, George Frisvold, and Russell Tronstad. 2010. Does Paying Referees Expedite Reviews?: Results of a Natural Experiment. Southern Economic Journal 76 (3): 678–92, https://doi.org/10.4284/sej.2010.76.3.678

Awards & Honors

Fulbright Specialist, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy, 2009
Graduate College Teaching and Mentoring Award, University of Arizona, 2007
Fulbright Distinguished Research/Lecturer Award, Viterbo, Italy, 2006
Outstanding Article (with Paul Wilson), Honorable Mention, Review of Agricultural Economics, 2004