Welcome!
I am Gaoyang Cai, a Ph.D. candidate in Managerial Economics and Strategy at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. I am on the academic job market in 2025–2026.
I study how platform design—covering information environments, recommendation and ranking algorithms, and governance mechanisms—shapes negotiation, competition, innovation, and disintermediation.
I combine theoretical modeling with field experiments, structural econometrics, and machine learning to inform consumer decision-making, firms’ marketing and competition strategies, and the design of platform information and interaction environments.
Email: gaoyang.cai@kellogg.northwestern.edu
Research Interests
Platform Markets; Information Design; Ranking and Recommendation Algorithms; Platform Governance and Regulation
Job Market Paper
Information Disclosure and Efficiency in Dynamic Price Negotiations: An Experimental and Structural Analysis, sole author
- 47th ISMS Marketing Science Conference, 2025
- 12th Annual Platform Research Symposium (Boston University, Ph.D. track), 2025
- INFORMS Annual Meeting, 2025 (scheduled)
Research Papers
Disintermediation Governance and Complementor Innovation: An Empirical Look at Amazon.com, with Xia Han & Grace Gu (Minor Revision at Management Science)
- POMS 33rd Annual Conference, 2023
- TIM Division Best Student Paper Award Finalist of the AOM 83rd Annual Meeting, 2023
- Nominated for the SMS 43rd Annual Conference Best Paper Prize, Annual Conference Research Methods Paper Prize and the Annual Conference PhD Paper Prize, 2023
- INFORMS E-Business, Best Paper Award, 2023
Coupling Information Disclosure with a Quality Standard in R&D Contests, with Jie Zheng, Jingfeng Lu & Qian Jiao (published in the Journal of Industrial Economics)
Working Papers
Platform Recommendation Algorithm, Niche Market Entry, and Quality Competition, with Xia Han & Grace Gu
- Marketing Science Institute Research Grant, 2024
- 85th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, 2025
- 12th Annual Platform Research Symposium (Boston University), 2025
- Reject & Resubmit at Marketing Science, 2025 (Preparing for Re-submission)
The Cost of Knowing: Competition and Search Frictions in Platform-Mediated Negotiations, with Xia Han, Chongyan Sun & Yingkang Xie (Preparing for Submission)
- Advances with Field Experiments Conference (The University of Chicago), 2025
- Conference on Information Systems and Technology, 2025
Work in Progress
Product Ranking Rules and Competition in Two-Sided Markets, sole author (Slides)
Work Trials and Labor Matching in the Gig Economy: Evidence from Freelance Artists, with Shi Gu & Edmond Lou (Slides)
The Freemium Pricing Strategy and the Opportunity Cost of Time, with Daniel F. Spulber (Preparing for Submission)
How Does Vertical Integration Affect Incentives to Innovate?, with Daniel F. Spulber (Preparing for Submission)
Stable and Balanced Outcome of Bilateral Bargaining in Networks, with Jie Zheng & Junpeng Xia (Preparing for Submission)
Teaching assistantships
Ph.D. course with Professor Isaias N. Chaves: “Static Optimization in Economics”, Fall 2022, Northwestern University
MBA course: “Crisis Management and Business Analytics II”, Fall 2020 and 2021, Northwestern University
Ph.D. course with Professor Jie Zheng: “Information, Contract and Organizational Economics”, Fall, 2018, Tsinghua University.
Undergraduate course with Professor Daokui Li and Professor Jie Zheng: “Intermediate Microeconomics”, Fall, 2018, Tsinghua University.
Education
Ph.D., in Managerial Economics & Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, September 2020 – 2026 (expected)
M.S., Managerial Economics & Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, September 2020 – June 2022
M.S., Economics, School of Management and Economics (SEM), Tsinghua University, September 2017 – July 2020
B.S., Economics, Nankai University, September 2013 – July 2017
Exchange Student, University of California Berkeley, January 2017 – May 2017