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Lingguo (Lin) Xu

Behavioural & Experimental Economics · Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Waterloo

l346xu@uwaterloo.ca lingguoxu.com Waterloo, Canada

Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo, working with Sam Johnson. PhD in Economics from the University of Melbourne. I use lab and online experiments to study how anticipatory emotions, information acquisition, and intertemporal choice shape economic decisions, with experimental infrastructure I design and build myself (oTree, Python; analysis in R and Stata). Targeting the 2027 or 2028 academic job market.

Academic Position

Postdoctoral Fellow 2025 – present
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo
Working with Sam Johnson on anticipatory utility and judgment & decision-making.

Education

Ph.D. Economics Nov 2025
University of Melbourne
Advisors: Nisvan Erkal; Boon Han Koh; Tom Wilkening.
M.A. Economics 2018
University of Queensland
B.S. Chemical Engineering 2015
Northeast Forestry University

Research

Working Papers

Anticipatory Utility as a Buffer Against Consumption Delays Submitted · JMP
Sole authored. [PDF] [Slides]

Examines anticipatory utility and its effect on delayed consumption using a pre-registered laboratory experiment (n = 360). Participants engage in a gold-mining game with random delay/no-delay assignment; anticipation is measured via willingness-to-pay for early information. Delays generally reduce valuation, but the effect is concentrated among low-anticipation individuals — anticipatory utility buffers against the negative effects of delay.

Gender and the Demand for Comparative Information R&R · J. Experimental Economics
with Nisvan Erkal and Boon Han Koh
[PDF] [Slides] [Pre-registration]

Investigates gender differences in demand for social comparison information when it is and isn't instrumental. Women who believe they are average performers avoid upward comparison when non-instrumental, but seek it when instrumental. Implications for the design of feedback systems in education and the workplace.

Works in Progress

Anticipatory Emotions and Loss Aversion in Health Decisions Data collection
Product Delays and Consumer Reaction Data collection
Differences in Perceptions of Loss Aversion Across Languages Data collection
CIDER: A New Way of Experiment Experimental design

Research Assistance

Nisvan Erkal and Tom Wilkening 2020 – 2024 · 160 hrs
Lab assistant; conference and workshop organisation; miscellaneous experimental and administrative tasks.
Siqi Pan 2024 · 140 hrs
oTree programming and lab assistance for an experimental study on matching markets. Funded by ARC grant.
Wasana Karunarathne 2023 – 2024 · 50 hrs
Assisting with Australian Research Council (ARC) grant application preparation.
Jenny Williams and Lisa Cameron 2022 – 2023 · 170 hrs
Data cleaning and statistical-learning analyses for a project on drug addiction in Indonesia. Funded by the Indonesian National Narcotics Agency.
Maria Recalde 2022 · 30 hrs
Assisting with the running of a lab experiment.
Nico Neumann 2021 – 2022 · 80 hrs
Web scraping, data analysis and preparing lecture slides.
Prosada Rao 2018 · 100 hrs
Literature review, data analysis, and miscellaneous tasks.

Teaching

University of Melbourne · Tutor (Teaching Associate) · 2021–2024

  • · Behavioural Economics — 3 semesters
  • · Microeconometrics — 1 semester (graduate)
  • · Quantitative Methods 1 — 1 semester

University of Queensland · Tutor · 2017–2018

  • · Elements of Econometrics — 4 semesters
  • · Applied Econometrics for Macroeconomics — 2 semesters
  • · Applied Econometrics for Microeconomics — 2 semesters
  • · Mathematical Techniques for Economics — 1 semester
  • · Benefit-Cost Analysis for Business — 1 semester

Note: All teaching above is as tutor / teaching assistant, not as lecturer.

Teaching evaluation: UoM (2021–2023) overall 4.7/5 · UQ (2017–2018) overall 4.7/5. Evaluation PDF →

Awards & Honours

Distinguished Teaching Award (twice) 2017 & 2018
The University of Queensland

Conferences & Workshops

"Gender and the Demand for Comparative Information"

  • · 2024 Australian Conference of Economists (ACE)
  • · 2024 Asia-Pacific Meetings of the Economic Science Association (ESA)
  • · 2024 Australian Gender Economics Workshop (AGEW)
  • · 2023 Annual Conference of the Western Economic Association International (WEAI)
  • · 16th Australia New Zealand Workshop in Experimental Economics (ANZWEE)
  • · University of Melbourne · Economics seminar

"Anticipatory Utility as a Buffer Against Consumption Delays"

  • · 2024 Asia-Pacific Meetings of the Economic Science Association (ESA)
  • · 2024 Australia New Zealand Workshop in Experimental Economics (ANZWEE)
  • · University of Melbourne · Behavioural and Experimental Economics workshop

Technical Skills

Experiment platforms: oTree (Python), Qualtrics, Prolific deployment
Programming: Python, R, Stata, HTML/CSS/JS
Methods: Structural estimation, reduced-form econometrics, statistical learning, web scraping
Typesetting / tooling: LaTeX, Git/GitHub, Markdown

References

Available on request. Letters from Nisvan Erkal, Boon Han Koh, and Tom Wilkening.

Last updated May 2026 · ← Back to home