My research is in the area of quantitative marketing, microeconomic theory and industrial organization.
My current works investigate consumer search and digital economy.
I'm an associate editor for Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Marketing Science, and Quantitative Marketing and Economics.
"Information Design of Online Platforms." (with Song Lin and Michelle Lu), revise and resubmit, Management Science
Accepted by 24th ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (EC 2023)
This paper analyzes sponsored ads on retail platforms by providing a unified view of personalized product recommendation and targeted advertising and showing that the platform's optimal information design entails limiting consumer search and mixing the matched product with a long tail of unmatched ones for recommendation.
"An Economic Model of Membership Subscription and Repeat Purchase Based on Continuous Information Tracking." (with Wee Chaimanowong), revise and resubmit, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
This paper builds a micro-founded model for customer lifetime value (CLV).
"From Canvas to Blockchain: Impact of Royalties on Art Market Efficiency." (with Xinyu Cao and Jieteng Chen), revise and resubmit, Management Science
This paper shows that royalties for artists act as taxation and thus introduce inefficiency to resale markets but may improve primary market efficiency by reducing price distortions.
"Searching for Breakthroughs with Both Parallel and Sequential Learning." (with Wee Chaimanowong and Miguel Villas-Boas), revise and resubmit, Management Science
This paper shows that companies should prioritize resources to less promising R&D projects when the development cost is high and the status-quo option is unattractive. Low costs (a high status quo) prompt the more promising project for R&D when the company is optimistic (pessimistic).
"Dynamic Social Product Design and Fashion Classics." (with Chenxi Liao, Fei Long and Michelle Lu), revise and resubmit, Journal of Marketing Research
This paper explains why the classic designs of Chanel are among its most expensive products but the classic designs of Louis Vuitton are among its cheapest products.
"Searching for Rewards." (with Jiwoong Shin and Xu Zhu), revise and resubmit, Management Science
Under a repeated ordered search framework, this paper shows that compared with price discounts which discourage further search in the current shopping period, rewards encourage consumer loyalty by inducing prominence in subsequent visits. Moreover, firms with larger networks tend to offer lower rewards.
"Attention Monetization via e-Commerce: Why Do People Buy Groceries on an Education App?" (with Jingcun Cao, Wee Chaimanowong and Mandy Hu)
This paper examines a new business model of attention monetization via e-commerce via both a large-scale online field experiment and a theoretic model.
"Pay To Lose: a Theory of Digital Co-op." (with Kinshuk Jerath and Fei Long)
This paper proposes that a common retailer softens manufacturers' competition for category keywords and facilitates business stealing for brand keywords.
"Competitive Model Selection in Algorithmic Targeting." (with Ganesh Iyer), Marketing Science (2024)
This paper shows that competition leads to simpler algorithms that introduce bias but reduce variance for targeting.
"Regulating Digital Piracy Consumption." (with Jieteng Chen and Yuetao Gao), Journal of Marketing Research (2024)
This paper shows that regulators' penalty on piracy users may inadvertently promote piracy consumption.
"Peer-to-Peer Markets with Bilateral Ratings." (with Monic Sun and Baojun Jiang), Marketing Science (2024)
NET Institute Summer Research Grant, 2017
This paper shows that bilateral ratings may soften price competition and sellers of higher quality may charge lower prices.
"A Model of Product Portfolio Design: Guiding Consumer Search through Brand Positioning." (with Jiwoong Shin and Jungju Yu), Marketing Science (2023)
This paper proposes a product-portfolio view of brand positioning and shows that search frictions lead to niche brand.
"Privacy Rights and Data Security: GDPR and Personal Data Markets." (with K. Sudhir), Management Science (2023)
Earlier version published in 16th Conference on Web & Internet Economics (WINE 2020)
Policy impact: cited at the legislation signing ceremony of Public Act 22-15, a Connecticut law that enacts consumer data privacy protection
This paper investigates how the two key features of GDPR—privacy rights and data security—impact personal data markets.
"Learning by Choosing: Career Concerns with Observable Actions." (with Christopher Li and Mikhail Safronov), American Economic Journal: Microeconomics (2023)
This paper explores potential inefficiencies when a worker chooses tasks that differ in productivity and information in a dynamic employment relationship and provides a new explanation of wage jump at job promotion.
"Cheap Talk on Freelance Platforms." (with Yuting Zhu), Management Science (2021)
This paper shows that buyers always have incentives to reveal their preferences truthfully on a freelance platform without post-match renegotiations.
"Searching for Service." (with Maarten Janssen), American Economic Journal: Microeconomics (2020)
This paper shows that pre-sale service makes a retailer prominent for consumer search, resulting in higher sales and profit despite of showrooming.
"Informational Complementarity." (with Song Lin), Management Science (2020)
This paper shows that substitutes can become complements when consumers search among products with correlated information.
"Optimal Learning Before Choice." (with J. Miguel Villas-Boas), Journal of Economic Theory (2019)
This papers shows that it can be optimal to learn a worse and more certain alternative so as to rule it out early and save efforts.
"Cooperative Search Advertising." (with Xinyu Cao), Marketing Science (2019)
This paper devises a manufacturer's optimal cooperative advertising strategy when he competes with its retailers in search ad auctions.
"Search for Information on Multiple Products." (with Z. Max Shen, and J. Miguel Villas-Boas), Management Science (2016)
Finalist, Frank M. Bass Award, 2017 and 2018
This paper introduces gradual learning into consumer search and provides a rational account for choice overloading.
"How Inventory Cost Influence Introduction Timing of Product Line Extensions?" (with Z. Max Shen, and Shan Li), Production and Operations Management (2013)
"Attention is the new gold, but how to mine it" on China Business Knowledge
"How Privacy Rights Affect Personal Data Markets and Firm Profit" on China Business Knowledge
"The Long-Term Effects of GDPR on Personal Data Markets" on Management Science Blogs
"Create Trust Online by Pairing User Control and Data Security" on Yale Insights
"零工經濟時代來了" on Bloomberg Businessweek/Chinese Edition (彭博商業周刊/中文版)
"零工經濟｜市場預2027年規模將超過90億美元 如何設計更好的網上平台？" on EDigest (經濟一週)
"Designing Better Online Platforms for the Gig Economy (为零工经济设计更好的网络平台)" on China Business Knowledge (中国经商智慧)
"Designing Better Online Platforms for the Gig Economy" on Britain in Hong Kong: British Chamber Magazine
"How Not to Get Ripped Off on Black Friday" on Fortune
"Parallel Search for Information in Continuous Time–Optimal Stopping and Geometry of the PDE." (with Wenpin Tang, J. Miguel Villas-Boas and Yuming Zhang), Applied Mathematics & Optimization (2022)
"Influence Maximization in Social Networks When Negative Opinions May Emerge and Propagate." (with Wei Chen, Alex Collins, Rachel Cummings, Zhenming Liu, David Rincon, Xiaorui Sun, Yajun Wang, Wei Wei, and Yifei Yuan), SDM (2011)
"Rapid Mid-Infrared Variability in Protostellar Disks." (with Hao Huang, and Douglas N.C. Lin), Astrophysical Journal (2012)