Tony Hua

Citizenship: USA

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of California, Merced. My research explores how psychological motivations shape economic behavior, with a focus on social preferences such as reciprocity, fairness, self-image, and status concerns.

Using a combination of theory and laboratory experiments, I study two related questions: (1) how individuals form and act on ethical preferences, and (2) how cognitive processes in complex environments generate behavior that may resemble (or distort) underlying social preferences.

In the past, I worked as an indie games developer and as a classroom instructor at 9 Dots, a non-profit dedicated to developing computer science education for K-12 public schools in the Los Angeles area. In my spare time, I enjoy designing and playing games of all sorts.

I am on the 2025-2026 job market. My Job Market Paper is available here.

Free free to reach out!

Contact: thua5 [at] ucmerced [dot] edu

Google Scholar