Xiaofeng Gong

Ph.D. Candidate in Economics

Department of Economics, University of Connecticut

I am on the job market in 2026–2027 and will be available for interviews at the AFA/ASSA Annual Meeting.

I am a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of Connecticut, expecting my degree in May 2027. My research studies how large firms divide their innovations between proprietary and open channels—patents on one side and public open-source code on the other—and what that division reveals about technology strategy, innovation policy, and platform competition. Methodologically, I build large-scale linked datasets connecting public software repositories with firm and patent records, and I develop measurement and applied-microeconometric tools to work with them. My work has appeared in Russian East European and Central Asian Studies and Eurasian Economy, and I previously earned an M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics and a B.S. in Mathematics and Economics (with Honors in Economics) from the University of Connecticut.

Research Interests

• Industrial Organization

• Digital Economy and Open-Source Software

• Innovation and Patent Policy

• Economic Sanctions

• Applied Microeconometrics

Education

• Ph.D. in Economics, University of Connecticut, 2022–present (expected May 2027)

• M.Sc. in Economics, London School of Economics, 2020–2022

• B.S. in Mathematics and Economics (double major; Honors in Economics), University of Connecticut, 2016–2020