research
research interest
industrial organization, competition policy, digital economy
In progress
News Media Bargaining Code, with Arthur Campbell and Geoffrey Go
Vertical integration in ad tech, with Arthur Campbell and Ryan Mulheron
working papers
"Regulating platform fees", with Julian Wright,
Journal of European Economic Association, conditionally accepted.
Abstract: We consider platforms that help consumers discover and transact with suppliers. Such platforms have come to dominate many sectors of the economy, raising issues about the high fees they charge suppliers, especially since they tend to commoditize the suppliers they aggregate. We show that in a baseline setting, the efficient platform fee is determined by a simple formula: it equals the platform's marginal cost plus the difference between suppliers' markups on the direct channel and suppliers' markups on the platform. We explore the extent to which this simple formula provides a robust cap for regulating the platform's fee more generally.
"Acquisition-induced kill zones", with Christopher Teh and Dyuti Banerjee
Abstract: We study the impact of a dominant incumbent's acquisition on entry and R&D incentives in a model with multiple start-ups. The incumbent's acquisition directly suppresses entry and can distort the non-target start-up's R&D incentives by creating a kill zone. The reduced threat of entry can also cause the incumbent to shelve the acquired technology. Despite these negative effects, acquisitions generally affect consumer welfare ambiguously due to synergy benefits. We study the design of merger policies aimed at minimizing acquisition-related harms. We also show that entry-for-buyout may not be a valid defence for start-up acquisitions when accounting for non-target start-ups.
publications and forthcoming
"Strategic limitation of market accessibility: search platform design and welfare", with Christopher Teh and Makoto Watanabe
Journal of Economic Theory, 216, 105798, 2024.
"Softening competition through unilateral sharing of customer data", with Chongwoo Choe and Jiajia Cong.
Management Science, 70(1), pages 526-543, 2024.
"To insure or not to insure? promoting trust and cooperation with insurance advice in markets", with Ben Grodeck, Franziska Tausch, and Erte Xiao.
European Economic Review, vol. 160, 104586, 2023.
"Platform investment and price parity clauses", with Julian Wright.
Journal of Industrial Economics, vol. 71(2), pages 323-592, 2023.
"Welfare improving horizontal mergers in successive oligopoly," with Arghya Ghosh and Hodaka Morita.
Journal of Industrial Economics, vol. 70(1), pages 89-118, 2022.
"Search platforms: showrooming and price parity clauses," with Julian Wright.
Rand Journal of Economics, Vol. 51, pages 32-58, 2020.
"A search model of rental markets: who should pay the commission?" with Andras Niedermayer.
International Journal of Industrial Organization, Vol. 58, pages 214-235, 2018.
Rand Journal of Economics, Vol. 48, pages 949-971, 2017. This article was based on Chapter 1 of my Ph.D. dissertation at UNSW.
"Strategic advertising and directed search," with Pedro Gomis-Porqueras and Benoit Julien.
International Economic Review, vol. 58(3), pages 783-806, 2017. This article was based on Chapter 2 of my Ph.D. dissertation at UNSW.
"Non-monotonic group-size effect in repeated provision of public goods," with Galina Zudenkova.
European Economic Review, vol. 89, pages 116-128, 2016.
"Optimal monetary and fiscal policies in a search-theoretical model with money and unemployment," with Pedro Gomis-Porqueras and Benoit Julien.
Macroeconomic Dynamics, vol. 17(06), pages 1330-1354, September 2013. This article was based on Chapter 3 of my Ph.D. dissertation at UNSW. Mentioned in NPE-DGE blog.
"Industrial upgrade, employment shock and land centralization in China," with Shunfeng Song and Jianghuai Zheng.
Contemporary Economic Policy, vol. 30(4), pages 523-532, October 2012. This article was based on a term paper that I wrote during my M.Ec study at Nanjing University.