Research: Digital Platforms, Privacy, Data Regulation, Experimental Designs and Optimization

Methods: Field experimentation, Deep Learning, Computer Vision, Structural Econometrics, and Multi-armed Bandits

Balancing User Privacy and Personalization  (Revise & Resubmit at Marketing Science)

Joint with Cole Zuber

Awards: MSI A.G. Clayton Best Dissertation Proposal 2022 and Shankar-Spiegel Best Dissertation Proposal Award 2023

Privacy restrictions imposed by browsers such as Safari and Chrome limit the quality of individual-level data used in personalization algorithms. This paper investigates the consequences of these privacy restrictions on consumer, seller and platform outcomes using data from Wayfair, a large US-based online retailer. Large-scale randomized experiments indicate that personalization increases seller and platform revenue, and leads to better consumer-product matches with 10% lower post-purchase product returns and 2.3% higher repeat purchase probability. Privacy restrictions can distort these benefits because they limit platforms' ability to personalize. We find that two main policies imposed by Safari and Chrome disproportionately hurt price responsive consumers and small/niche product sellers. To address this, we propose and evaluate a probabilistic recognition algorithm that associates devices with user accounts, even without exact user identity. Our findings demonstrate that this approach mitigates much of welfare and revenue losses, striking a balance between privacy and personalization.

Bias-Aware Multi-Objective Optimization for Online Rankings: A Demand-Side Approach to Supply-Side Efficiency (draft available upon request)

Joint with Alibek Korganbekov and Aliya Korganbekova

We develop and field-test a bias-aware multi-objective ranking algorithm that jointly maximizes purchase probability and minimizes fulfillment costs on a large e-commerce platform. Standard adaptive rankings use biased conversion estimates—distorted by exposure, position, and neighborhood effects—which, when combined with cost signals, can misallocate rank positions. We extend the Adaptive Doubly Robust framework to incorporate neighborhood bias, using embedding-based summaries of co-displayed products for scalable correction. In a large-scale experiment, our method reduced shipping costs by 2.7\%, cut average shipping distance by 34 miles, and lowered estimated emissions by 3.8\% without harming conversions or satisfaction on average. However, performance deteriorated in regions where perceived quality fell—e.g., fewer fast-shipping badges—even when actual quality remained unchanged, underscoring the need to balance cost efficiency with quality perception.

Regulating Data Usage and Dual Platforms 

Joint with Alibek Korganbekov

Awards: 2023 ISMS Sheth Foundation Best Dissertation Proposal Award 

We examine the necessity and the design of data usage regulation in B2B markets, particularly focusing on concerns regarding platforms like Amazon that function as both marketplaces and sellers. The key issue is the alleged use of internal Amazon data to replicate top-performing products from third-party sellers. Using Deep Learning tools, we analyze visual and textual similarity measures between 624 Amazon Basics and 2 million third-party seller products. The findings reveal significant and consistent similarities between private label and third-party products across multiple product categories. Additionally, our research questions the effectiveness of duration-based regulation proposed by the European Union. It shows that Amazon takes an average of 2.5-3 years to imitate a product, while smaller sellers' products require approximately 5 years. This indicates that duration-based data regulation provides Amazon with ample time to collect data, suggesting the need for a different seller-targeted data regulation approach.

Ranking algorithms and Equilibrium prices (draft available upon request) [slides]

Joint with Yufeng Huang and Aliya Korganbekova

We examine the impact of ranking algorithms on equilibrium prices and product quality in e-commerce platforms. Sellers may strategically set prices to affect future rankings, leading to differentiated pricing based on their private information about product quality. We collaborate with a major e-commerce platform and utilize experimental variations in algorithm components to analyze sellers' equilibrium strategies. Through an experimental "boost" to product rankings, we observe that initial ranking improvements lead to increased traffic and sales. High-quality sellers respond by reducing wholesale prices by 2.2-3.5% to maintain their ranking advantage, while low-quality sellers raise wholesale prices by 1.5% for short-term profit gains. As a result, rankings impact equilibrium prices, creating sorting effects that unveil sellers' quality and expedite quality disclosure. We develop a calibrated model to match the experimental findings and evaluate alternative policies wherein the platform boosts the products with the most quality uncertainty to accelerate quality revelation.

External Validity and Interference: Adaptive Experimental Design in Online Pricing (solo, slides available upon request) 

Interference—violations of the Stable Unit Treatment Value Assumption (SUTVA)—poses a major challenge to causal inference in randomized experiments, especially in online marketplaces where one unit’s treatment can influence others’ outcomes. While cluster-randomized designs are often used to address this issue, they are statistically inefficient, costly to implement, and ill-suited when the experimenter’s goal is to estimate unit-level effects, such as product-level price elasticities. Partnering with a large European retailer, I conduct two field experiments—a product-level experiment and a cluster-level meta-experiment—which reveal that interference bias in standard designs ranges from 35% to 60%. I propose and validate an adaptive experimental design that dynamically prioritizes units with high expected impact, thereby improving statistical power, enhancing external validity, and reducing implementation costs. The findings show that adaptive experimentation can effectively manage interference while aligning experimental design with practical objectives in complex, interconnected settings.