David Ong's home page

Experimental Applied Microeconomist

I am an experimental applied microeconomist building large-scale field and platform-based research programs to study matching, competitiveness, and household formation.

My work develops experimental and empirical methods to understand how individual preferences and competitiveness shape sorting, partner selection, and income outcomes. A central focus of my research is how micro-level behavioral traits translate into equilibrium matching patterns and household inequality.

Across my projects, I combine field experiments, survey measures of competitiveness, and large-scale online dating and consumer platform data to create scalable research infrastructure capable of supporting multi-institution collaboration and external grant funding. This approach allows the study of partner selection, labor outcomes, and cross-productivity effects at a scale not typically feasible in laboratory settings.

I am currently collaborating with colleagues at the University of Chicago and other institutions on grant-funded and grant-development projects that expand this experimental and platform-based research platform.

My work has been published in journals including the Journal of Development Economics, the European Economic Review, and the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.