Weining Bao

Assistant Professor

Marketing

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Education/Professional Certification

Ph.D. Economics, 2014, Johns Hopkins University
B.Econ&Fin. (minor in Mathematics), 2008, The University of Hong Kong

Areas of Expertise

Substantive:  Societal impact driven marketing, AI-enabled markets, Information design and incentives,
Substantive:  Financial services markets, Education markets
Methodological:  Empirical and theoretical industrial organization, Applied game theory, Applied econometrics

Biography

Weining is a modeler who employs both empirical and analytical methods to investigate strategic interactions among consumers, firms, and policymakers. His primary research interests lie in societal impact driven marketing (e.g., consumer well-being and inequality), with a focus on market design and strategic pricing in financial services and education markets. More recently, Weining has expanded his research to examine how (1) information technologies (e.g., AI) and (2) information design shape consumer decision-making, firm strategy, and social welfare. Weining’s research is interdisciplinary, and his work has appeared in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Management Information Systems, Management Science, Marketing Science, and Production and Operations Management.

Weining has taught at universities in various countries, such as Australia and China. He has taught Marketing Research and Pricing at undergraduate level and Dynamic Methods at postgraduate level. At UConn, he teaches Digital Marketing Analytics and has previously taught Advanced Modeling.

Weining has been passionate about mathematics in his school years, actively engaging as a Mathematics Olympiad player (from 5th grade to 12th grade). In 11th grade, Weining outperformed his 12th-grade peers and received the first prize in the 2002 Chinese National Mathematics Olympiad in Senior. This success continued into 12th grade, where he once again claimed the first prize in the 2003 Chinese National Mathematics Olympiad in Senior. Weining was a finalist in the 2004 Chinese Mathematics Olympiad (CMO).

Personal website: https://sites.google.com/site/wbao3jhu/

Featured Publications

1. Gu, Zheyin Jane, Han Yue, Weining Bao, and Hongfu Liu (2025), “Using Consumption Emotional Features to Predict Web-show Viewership”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, forthcoming.
2. Bao, Weining, Jian Ni, and Shubhranshu Singh (2024), “Educational Inequality and Reservation Policy in Developing Markets”, Management Science, 70(5), 3162 – 3181.
3. Xiao, Ping, Kai-Yu Hsieh, and Weining Bao (2024), “Donations by Disaster-Afflicted Firms and Changes in Firm Value: Self-Protection and Reputation-Building Perspectives”, Production and Operations Management, 33(1), 323 – 341.
   • Authors are listed in reverse alphabetical order.
4. Xiao, Ping, Yuanyuan Chen, Anandhi Bharadwaj, and Weining Bao (2022), “The Effects of Information Nudges on Consumer Usage of Digital Services under Three-Part Tariffs”, Journal of Management Information Systems, 39(1), 130 – 158.
   • A statement detailing my contribution to the paper is available upon request.
5. Bao, Weining, Jian Ni, and Shubhranshu Singh (2018), “Informal Lending in Emerging Markets”, Marketing Science, 37(1), 123 – 137.
6. Bao, Weining, and Jian Ni (2017), “Could Good Intentions Backfire? An Empirical Analysis of the Bank Deposit Insurance”, Marketing Science, 36(2), 301 – 319.