Biography

Dr. Woo teaches macroeconomics, public finance and welfare economics at CUHK. He also conducts researches, currently in three major areas (i) social status-seeking under imperfect market, (ii) social choice theory of paternalism, and (iii) economics education.

One of the aspects of teaching that he enjoys most is that he can present a proof of Arrow’s impossibility theorem in classroom to his students with a set of graphs that he constructed. He has also worked on a research project exploring how graphical methods can be used to improve presentation in, and help the understanding of, social choice theory.

Research

Publications

• Woo, W. C. (2011). Status and welfare under monopolistic competition. Social Choice and Welfare, 36(2), 227-239.
• Woo, W. C. (2012). Inverted U-shaped conformism: An economic model of endogenous responses to the Joneses. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 41(1), 31-36.
• Woo, W. C. (2013). Social inefficiency of free entry with status effects. Journal of Public Economic Theory, 15(2), 229-248.
• Woo, W. C. (2016). Status goods and market powers. German Economic Review, 17(1): 26-35.
• Woo, W. C. (2016). Quantity versus variety: Which aspect does status-seeking promote?. International Review of Economics, 63(2), 93-106 (lead article).
• Woo, W. C. (2017). The Way We Teach Public Economics: A Rationalization Using the Theory of Third Best. Pacific Economic Review, 22(2), 229-248.
• Woo, W. C. (2018). Kaplow-Shavell welfarism without continuity. Mathematical Social Sciences, 96: 92-96.

Works in progress

• Graphical representations of proofs in social choice theory
• A social choice theory of paternalism

Courses Taught