学术活动

Ming Hu, Associate Professor , University of Toronto：Pricing and Matching in Sharing Economy

【Speaker】Ming Hu, Associate Professor, University of Toronto

【Title】Pricing and Matching in Sharing Economy

【Time】June.12，Monday,10:30-12:00

【Venue】Room 401, Weilun Building, Tsinghua SEM

【Language 】English

【Abstract】Motivated by the emerging sharing economy, we study an intermediary such as Uber, who crowdsources goods or services from independent suppliers or agents, and sells them to consumers. First, we focus on the optimality of fixed commission crowdsourcing contracts under market uncertainty. Surprisingly, we show that the commission contract can be optimal or near-optimal for the intermediary (and suppliers). Second, taking into account other factors of suppliers and consumers beyond valuation, such as geographic location or quality, for given prices, we focus on characterizing the optimal matching policy for the intermediary and show when it is optimal to prioritize matching based on distance or quality.

【Bio】Ming Hu is an Associate Professor of Operations Management at Rotman. His research explores the interface between operations management and marketing, with a focus on analyzing strategic interactions among firms and between firms and consumers, in the context of revenue management, supply chain management and service management. His research topics include mechanism design, integration of inventory/capacity and pricing, price competition and modeling of consumer behaviour. Most recently, he studies operations management in the context of social buying, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, and two-sided markets.