Aaron Strong is an applied economist at the RAND Corporation. He tends to work on environmental, resource, and disaster related topics. His recent work has focused on the impact of recovery efforts on the economies of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, estimating the impact of social distancing policies on health and economics outcomes, and a better understanding of occupational risk and economic recovery in response to COVID-19. Previous work focused on developing a framework for estimating the resilience dividend and how to incorporate this framework into transportation planning and assessment as well as bioeconomic modeling of Western US rangelands and trout habitat.

In addition to these topics, he has also explored land loss in Louisiana, changes to workers’ compensation in California, Medicaid expansion, and changes to regulations for oil and gas refineries in California. He earned his PhD in economics from the University of Colorado – Boulder and has previously held faculty positions at the University of Iowa and University of Wyoming.