Welcome! I’m Lei Xu.

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Tobacco Research, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC). My work combines rigorous economic modeling with policy-relevant applications in public health, food, substance use, and consumer behavior.

My research agenda centers on understanding how market dynamics, regulatory interventions, and individual heterogeneity shape decision-making and welfare by combining demand-system estimation, choice-experiment methodologies, and machine-learning calibration techniques to quantify how economic incentives and policy interventions influence consumer behavior and welfare in both food and substance-use contexts.