Jason A. Aimone

Professional Summary

After obtaining his PhD from George Mason University, Jason Aimone completed a post-doctoral position in neuroeconomics at Virginia Tech. During this time, he studied the neural underpinnings of human economic behavior, with a specific focus upon how combat veterans’ PTSD affects their economic decision-making. Much of this work involved using functional MRI scanning to peer into individuals’ brains as they made economic decisions.

Since joining Baylor, Aimone has shifted to laboratory experimental methods to analyze economic decision making, with a continued interest in how one’s brain and health affects economic choices. Much of his work centers around questions of how individuals perceive, respond to, and explore economic environments of ambiguity, risk and trust.

Aimone also studies the economics of the criminal justice system and models aspects of it within an experimental laboratory. For example, Aimone and his co-authors have explored the unintended consequences of jury pay donation card policies in Texas. This work resulted in an unopposed legislative change that reduced unfair biases in jury trials in Texas.

Education

• 2011 – PhD, Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia
• 2006 – MS, Economics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
• 2003 – BA, Economics, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Courses

• ECO 1305 – Issues in Economics for Non-Business Majors
• ECO 2306 – Principles of Microeconomics
• ECO 4314 – Behavioral and Experimental Economics
• ECO 5001 – Research Seminar
• ECO 5002 – Research Seminar
• ECO 5314 – Seminar in Behavioral and Experimental Economics

Research Interests

• Experimental Economics
• Behavioral Economics
• Neuroeconomics
• Criminal Justice
• Micro-Health Economics

Selected Publications

• Lauharatanahirun, N., & Aimone, J. A. Trust and Risk: Neuroeconomic Foundations of Trust Based on Social Risk. In The Neurobiology of Trust, (Krueger, Ed.). Cambridge University Press., 2022. p 101-123.
• Aimone, J. A., North, C., & Rentschler, L. (2019). Priming the jury by asking for Donations: An empirical and experimental study. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 160, 158-167.
• Aimone, J. A., Houser, D., & Weber, B. (2014). Neural signatures of betrayal aversion: an fMRI study of trust. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1782), 20132127.
• Aimone, J. A., Iannaccone, L. R., Makowsky, M. D., & Rubin, J. (2013). Endogenous group formation via unproductive costs. Review of Economic Studies, 80(4), 1215-1236.
• Aimone, J. A., & Houser, D. (2012). What you don’t know won’t hurt you: a laboratory analysis of betrayal aversion. Experimental Economics, 15(4), 571-588.