Jessie Liu

Zhenqi (Jessie) Liu, PhD

Assistant Professor
Academic AreaMarketing
Academic AreaEconomics
Areas of InterestPricing, Information and Media Economics, Digital Marketing

Dr. Liu is an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. She joined Carey in 2020 after receiving a PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Her area of expertise lies primarily in information and media economics, digital marketing, and the pricing of status goods. Utilizing both theoretical and empirical methods in her research, she investigates the impacts of competition and asymmetric information in a range of marketing and economic contexts. For example, she has conducted studies examining the potential for decentralized markets to motivate social media platforms towards increased content moderation. Furthermore, her research in pricing strategies has delved into the repercussions of AI algorithms that pair brands with influencers and how luxury brands should adapt their pricing and portfolio choices to counter high-quality counterfeit products.

She received the William Polk Carey Prize in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania's Economics Department. This award was established to recognize the best doctoral dissertation each academic year.

Education

  • Ph.D., Economics, University of Pennsylvania
  • BA, Mathematical Economics, Fudan University

Research

Selected Publication

  • "Asymmetric Impact of AI Matching on Influencer Marketing: Implications for Platform Revenue" (with Yi Liu), 2024 Marketing Science (Forthcoming).
  • "Less Is More: A Theory of Minimalist Luxury" (with Pinar Yildirim and Z. John Zhang), 2024 Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 33(1), pp.78-110.
  •  "A Theory of Maximalist Luxury" (with Pinar Yildirim and Z. John Zhang), 2022 Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 31(2), pp.284-323.

Working Papers

  • "How Allowing a Little Bit of Dissent Helps Control Social Media: Impact of Market Structure on Censorship Compliance"
  • "People Are More Likely to Believe and Share Fake News on Smartphones (vs. PCs)" (with Minzhe Xu and Yang Yang)

Teaching

Current

  • Customer Analytics

Honors and distinctions

  • SNF Agora Faculty Grant Award, Johns Hopkins University, 2022
  • William Polk Carey Prize for Outstanding Economics Dissertation, 2021
  • AMA Doctoral Consortium Fellow, 2019
  • Mack Institute Research Fellowship, 2019

In the Media

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