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Hello & Welcome

I am an assistant professor of economics at the School of Economics in Nankai University. I obtained my Ph.D. degree in Economics at the Pennsylvania State University in 2020. My research is in microeconomic theory and experimental economics.

I can be reached at: zf#nankai.edu.cn

Research

Publications

On Optimal Favoritism in All-Pay Contests (Accepted by Journal of Mathematical Economics)

Abstract: I analyze the optimal favoritism in a complete-information all-pay contest with two players, whose costs of effort are weakly convex. The contest designer could favor or harm some contestants using one of two instruments: head starts and handicaps. I find that any given player's effort distribution is ranked in the sense of first-order stochastic dominance according to how (ex post) symmetric the players are in terms of competitiveness. Consequently, as long as the designer values effort from both contestants, "leveling the playing field" is optimal regardless of which instrument is used.

Working Papers

Abstract: In many competitions where creativity and innovation play a large role (e.g., architecture design competitions or research grant competitions), contestants can be uncertain about the organizer’s exact preferences. I develop a model of creative contests in which two firms compete by adjusting their designs when they are uncertain about the contest organizer’s ideal design. My model contrasts with existing contest models, as the latter assume organizer preferences instead to be public knowledge. A model of creative contests that accounts for such uncertainty enables us to study many new questions. In particular, I investigate whether an organizer should disclose her ideal design to contestants and find that disclosure is not always optimal for organizers, because disclosing an ideal design favors one participant over the other and thus discourages competition. I also conduct a laboratory experiment to test the model’s empirical relevance when assumptions about rationality and risk-neutrality are not necessarily satisfied and find that the results are generally consistent with theoretical predictions for contestants’ behavior and for whether the organizer benefits from disclosure.

Work in Progress

Single Prize Contests (joint with Ron Siegel )

We develop a technique to solve for general single prize contests.

Electricity Market Design with Renewable Resources (joint with Cody Hohl, Anthony Kwasnica and Chiara Lo Prete)

Is stochastic information on renewable generation best incorporated into commitment and dispatch decisions through a centralized forecasting approach or a sequential market approach?

Sure or Not? Mixed Strategies Can Be the Strict Best Response (joint with Jason Shachat)

An experimental study of how ambiguity, beliefs and mixed strategies interact in repeated games.

Overbidding and Randomization

An experimental investigation of whether inability to randomize is a source of overbidding.

Teaching Experience

Instructor

Introductory Microeconomics (Online, 2018 and 2019)

Teaching Assistant

Introductory Microeconomics (2014 and 2019)

Introductory Macroeconomics (2015)

Labor Economics and Labor Markets (2015 - 2017)

Public Finance and Fiscal Policy (2016 and 2018)

Monetory Theory and Policy (2017 - 2018)