Dian Gu

I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Economics at Ohio State University (OSU), and I expect to graduate in 2028.

I am interested in experimental economics, and my current work studies how recency induces a tendency toward local search when familiar decision environments become more complex, leading to suboptimal outcomes.

Using a shopping experiment inspired by the knapsack problem, I hope show that sequential exposure to similar tasks encourages local adjustments, whereas separating tasks increases the likelihood of global reoptimization and reduces deviations from the optimal cost.

Here is my CV.