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 intertemporal choice and anticipatory utility.

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 Under review · J. Econ. Behavior & Organization
Sole authored. [SSRN] [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. Economic Psychology
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 Dread, Hope, and Loss Aversion: Evidence from Life-Year Gambles Data collection
[Experiment screenshots]
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