Ritchie Craig Woodard

My name is Ritchie C. Woodard and I am a Lecturer in Economics at the University of East Anglia. I convene the module Introductory Macroeconomics, while also teaching on the Business & Economics of Sport. I currently hold the roles of Employability Officer, Placement Officer, and Support Tutor for Macroeconomics & Econometrics. 

I have a strong interest in pedagogical research and innovation. I have research related to understanding the drivers of students to work while studying and also on defining and measuring educational gain within higher education. I am intrigued by the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and enjoy using it to innovate and enhance how I teach and the learning experience of students.

My other research focusses on workplace wellbeing. These include a cost-benefit analysis of several workplace wellbeing interventions, an assessment of workplace wellbeing in the NHS and evaluation of how it can be improved, and the development of resources to support workplace wellbeing for frontline workers in industries such retail, hospitality and care.

Another research interest of mine is Sports Economics. As a keen sportsman and economist, this gives me an ideal opportunity to combine two of my passions. I believe Sports Economics offers a unique opportunity with the availability of rich, detailed data which can be used to gain behavioural insights within a well-structured and easily defined setting. As well as producing research for a popular and economically significant industry, I also believe the findings can have wider-reaching applications. 

I graduated with a PhD in Economics in July 2020, having successfully defended my thesis in December 2019. My PhD project was supervised by Dr. Peter Dawson and Dr. Georgios Papadopoulos. The title of my thesis is "Wage Dispersion, National Diversity and Performance - Evidence from the National Basketball Association".

I have a range of teaching experience within the economics discipline, including Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics and Sports Economics. I am trained in the use of statistical software including Stata, Excel and R; and I use LaTex to produce my research.

Please take a look around my site and feel free to contact me at R.Woodard@uea.ac.uk if you would like to get in touch.