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Lucy Xiaolu Wang's Professional Website

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I am a tenure-track Assistant Professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst, a Faculty Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Germany, and a Faculty Associate at the Canadian Centre for Health Economics. My research focuses on the economics of innovation & digitization in health care markets (national and global), particularly in the biopharmaceutical and digital health industries. I am a co-founder and inaugural convener for the Digital Health Technology special interest group at the International Health Economics Association, and I currently serve as the inaugural program chair for the Innovation and Digitization program area at the American Society of Health Economists. My projects have been funded by Cornell, CUFE, Duke, Institute for Humane Studies, Max Planck Institute, National Ministry of Education of China, RWJF, UMass, among others.

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Curriculum Vitae

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Education: 

  • Ph.D. Economics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

  • M.A. Economics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

  • B.A. Economics (specialty: Insurance), CUFE, Beijing, China

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Research and Teaching Fields: 

Health Economics, Innovation Economics/Management, Industrial Organization, Public Finance, Applied Econometrics

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Contact Information:

email: xiaoluwang at umass.edu

address: Stockbridge Hall 208B, 80 Campus Center Way, Amherst 01003

Research Papers
Research Papers

I utilize rich institutional details and novel data on health care markets to answer theory-motivated, policy-relevant empirical questions. My research agenda aims to understand innovation in markets with high R&D investment, heavy regulation, massive financial burden, and important implications for social welfare and firms' decisions.

Working Papers

The Organization of Innovation: Incomplete Contracts and the Outsourcing Decision, with Thomas Jungbauer (Cornell), Sean Nicholson (Cornell), June Pan (Visa), Michael Waldman (Cornell) Conditionally Accepted, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics​

  • Download: SSRN, NBER WP, slides. How do firms choose whether to conduct R&D in-house or outsource for similar projects? Our theoretical model and empirical tests in the pharmaceutical sector reveal factors that shape this choice. â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹

 

Legalization and Innovation in the Cannabis Market, with Nathan Chan (UMass Amherst), R&R, International Journal of Industrial Organization (in active revision)

  • Download: latest draft (SSRN). How would changes in legal institutions affect the rate and direction of innovation in restricted or illicit markets? In the cannabis market, legalization increases innovation, but not where it matters the most.

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Health IT Diffusion and Physician Labor Supply, with Jason Huh (RPI), Jianjing Lin (UMass Amherst)  

  • Download: latest draft, slides. We find that health IT diffusion increases hospital-based physician supply, esp. in medical and surgical specialties, early-career doctors, and shortage areas, by enhancing hospital finances and care capacity.

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Publications

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

Marketing Authorization and Strategic Patenting: Evidence from Pharmaceuticals, 2025, Journal of Public Economics, with Dennis Byrski (MPI alum)

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Procurement Institutions and Essential Drug Supply in Low and Middle-Income Countries, 2025, Journal of Health Economics, with Nahim Bin Zahur (Queen's University, Canada)

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A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Medicines Patent Pool, 2023, Economics Bulletin

  • Download: published version; MPI discussion paper. Estimation of MPP-induced consumer & producer welfare gains based on a structural model. Simulated counterfactuals accounted for no MPP and further expansions. 

  • This paper is split (structural part) from an earlier draft at SSRN (unsplit) draft (paper & appendix); follow-up to Wang (2022).

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Human Mediation Leads to Higher Compliance in Digital Mental Health: Field Evidence from India, 2023, Frontiers in Behavioral Economics, Special Issue: The Ethics and Behavioral Economics of Human-AI Interactions, with Chirantan Chatterjee (U of Sussex), Marina Chugunove (MPI), Ghosh Mainak (MPI), Abhay Singhal (TickTalkTo) 

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Collaborating Neuroscience Online: The Case of the Human Brain Project Forum, 2022, PLOS ONE, with Ann-Christin Kreyer* (Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition; MGSE at LMU Munich, Germany) *co-author is a Ph.D. student mentee

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Global Drug Diffusion and Innovation with the Medicines Patent Pool, 2022, Journal of Health Economics

  • Download: published version; MPI discussion paper; reading slides. The MPP spurs more generic drug supply of patented drugs and positive spillover effects to upstream innovation (input & output). The MPP is now a key part of the WHO Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP); Here is a summary of their contribution to drug access in Covid-19. 

  • This paper is split (causal part) from an earlier draft at SSRN (unsplit) draft (paper & appendix); (unsplit) slides (60 min version) 

  • Best Paper Proceedings, Academy of Management (technology & innovation management division), 2021

  • Best Student Paper award nominee, Antitrust Writing Awards, Concurrences, 2020

  • Best Paper Award, Wharton Innovation Doctoral Symposium, University of Pennsylvania, 10/2019

  • Young Scholar Best Paper Award (economics/management), European Policy for Intellectual Property, ETH Zürich, 9/2019

  • Research grants: Cornell SC Johnson College of Business "Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Technology" inaugural travel grant, 2019-2020; Institute for Humane Studies Grant, 2018-2019; Cornell Graduate School Research Travel Grant, 2019

  • Featured in Written Description by Prof. Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, 9/2019

  • Media: Twitter thread; news@UMass; The Conversation; Medical Xpress, Yahoo! News, allAfrica, The Hour, The Telegraph, NewsBreak, NewsTimes, Global Health News Wire, VTLNews.com, Columbus Telegram, WFMZ-TV Online, Southern Illinoisan, Scottsbluff Star-Herald, Rapid City Journal, Quad-Cities Online, Beatrice Daily Sun, Madison.com, ArcaMax, Newsify, Greensboro.com, Tucson.com, Bismarck Tribune, Flipboard, Hearst Newspapers, Old Reader, Newsblur, Inoreader, Albany Times-Union, Connecticut Post, Menafn, New Haven Register, Edwardsville (IL) Intelligencer, Stamford Advocate, Houston Chronicle, Danbury News-Times, San Antonio Express-News, Giving Compass, Huron Daily Tribune, ...

  • Top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric; top 1% compared to outputs of the same age & source (link)

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U.S. State Approaches to Cannabis Licensing, 2022, International Journal of Drug Policy, with Nicholas J. Wilson* (LMU Munich) *co-author is a Master's student mentee 

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The Complementarity of Drug Monitoring Programs and Health IT for Reducing Opioid-Related Mortality and Morbidity, 2021, Health Economics 

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The Secret Menu in Health Care: A Cash Market for Imaging in California, 2020, INQUIRY, with Jordan Epstein (Stroll Health), Sean Nicholson (Cornell University), Katherine Hempstead (RWJF), Sam Asin (Stroll Health)

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Peer-reviewed Policy Reports & Notes

Digital Interventions in the Health Sector: Country Cases and Policy Discussions, 2023, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Notes, with Carolina Bloch (IMF) 

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Best Paper Proceedings

Medicines Patent Pool and HIV Drug Cocktail Diffusion and Innovation, 2021, In Guclu Atinc (Ed.), Best Paper Proceedings of the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (link) (top ≤10% among accepted papers)

 

The Complementarity of Health Information & HIT for Reducing Opioid-Related Mortality and Morbidity, 2019, Best Paper Proceedings of the 79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (link) (top ≤10% among accepted papers)

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Book Chapters

Manufacturing Fetishism: The Neo-Mercantilist Preoccupation with Protecting Manufacturing, 2015, joint with Alecia W. Cassidy and Edward Tower, The Region and Trade: New Analytical Directions (Ed. Amitrajeet Batabyal and Peter Nijkamp), World Scientific, p.137-175 (download: Duke (ERID) working paper; publisher's site)

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Technical Memos

Patent Classification Systems and Technological Categorization: An Overview and Update (download: SSRN; data)

Teaching Experiences
Teaching

In my learning experience, research (knowledge creation) and teaching (knowledge diffusion) are often complements. While researching innovation, teaching offers me the opportunities to understand creativity - how innovative ideas can be generated in the first place. I believe that highly motivated and creative learners are essential for future innovation.

Teaching Fellowships and Recognition​

  • UMass Amherst Public Interest Technology Initiative (PIT@UMass) inaugural faculty fellowship (info), 2022

  • CU-CIRTL Scholar Certificate Award (the first awardee in the field of economics), Cornell, Nov. 2018

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant Fellowship (as a fellow mentor), Center for Teaching Innovation, Cornell, 2017-2018

  • Graduate Research and Teaching Fellowship, Center for Teaching Excellence, Cornell, 2016-2017

  • Graduate Student Spotlight, Graduate School interview on research, teaching, and learning, Cornell, Apr. 2017

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As an Instructor for Undergraduate & Graduate Courses

  • Topics in Advanced Econometrics (Ph.D. Econometrics III), UMass Amherst, F24

  • Intermediate Statistics for Business and Economics (undergraduate), UMass Amherst, S&F22, F23, F24

  • Health Economics (upper-level undergraduate), UMass Amherst, F21, F22, F23, F24​

  • Honors Thesis (undergraduate, primary advisor, committee chair), UMass Amherst, F23, S24, F24, S25

  • Independent Study (undergraduate and graduate), UMass Amherst, S22, F22, S23, F23, S24, F24, S25

  • Mathematics Review Session for Management (MBA), Johnson Business School, Cornell, Aug. 7, 2018

  • Graduate Teaching Excellence Program (Ph.D.) Training Sessions (Feb. 15, Mar. 8, Mar. 29), Cornell, 2018

  • Guest instructor, “Why Firms Fail? Mini-Case Studies of Enron & Theranos”, for Corporations, Shareholders, and Policy (Undergraduate & Masters’ Level), Prof. Rick Geddes, Cornell, Feb. 9, 2017

As a Teaching Assistant for Graduate & Professional Courses

  • Microeconomics for Management (MBA), Prof. Michael Waldman, Cornell, Fall 2018 (head TA)

  • Microeconomics for Management (Finance EMBA), Prof. Armin Rick, Cornell-Tsinghua, Oct. 2016 & 2017

  • Microeconomics for Management (Accelerated MBA), Prof. Michael Waldman, Cornell, Summer 2017

  • Corporations, Shareholders, and Policy, Prof. Rick Geddes, Cornell, Spring 2017

  • Computer Modeling for Policy Analysis, Prof. Edward Tower, Duke, Spring 2014

As a Grader for Graduate Econometrics Courses

  • Empirical Strategies for Policy Research II (Ph.D.), Prof. Zhuan Pei, Cornell, Spring 2018

  • Applied Microeconometrics (Master's level), Prof. Daniel Yi Xu, Duke, Spring 2014

As a Teaching Assistant for Undergraduate Courses

  • Corporations, Shareholders, and Policy, Prof. Rick Geddes, Cornell, Spring 2017

  • Public Finance - Economics of the Public Sector, Prof. Brandon Tripp, Cornell, Fall 2016

  • Introductory Microeconomics, Prof. Jennifer Wissink, Cornell, Fall 2014

As a Co-Instructor for Graduate & Post-Doctoral Professional Workshops

  • “Enhance Teaching with Research-Based Practices” (with Jeffrey Mulligan), Cornell, Mar. 17, 2018

  • “Teaching and Leadership Development” (with Matt Hankins), Cornell, Oct. 28, 2017

  • “Overcoming Anxiety about Public Speaking” (with Jack Madden), Cornell, Oct. 14, 2017

  • “Using Theater Techniques to Enhance Your Teaching” (with Mary Centrella), Cornell, Apr. 11, 2017

  • “Flipping the Classroom as a TA” (with Minji Kim), Univ.-wide Conference, Cornell, Mar. 4, 2017

  • “Using a Case-Study Approach to Teaching” (with Catherine Spirito), Cornell, Nov. 16, 2016

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Case and Teaching Materials

  • “Connecting with Reality: Using Mini-Case Study Approach to Facilitate and Assess Student Learning,” 2018, Cornell University Classroom Research Working Paper Series, Volume 6

 

Services
Service

Mentoring Experiences

  • Trained Facilitator for Graduate School’s Research Mentor Training (for faculty/postdoc/grad), UMass, 2023

  • Co-organizer & Panelist, Mentoring Workshop for 3rd + Year Women & Non-Binary PhD Students in Economics and Economics-Adjacent Fields, AEA Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, 2022

  • Faculty Mentor, Mentoring Workshop for Women & Non-binary PhD Students in Health Economics & Health Policy (virtual), AEA Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP), Fall 2021

  • Fellow Mentor and Leader for Graduate Research and Teaching Fellows, Cornell, 2017-2018

  • Research Mentor for an Undergraduate Honors Thesis (B.S. Economics 18’ summa cum laude), Cornell, 2018

  • Mentor, Cornell Ph.D. Peer-Mentoring Program, Dept. of Economics, Cornell, 2017-2018

  • Certificate of Completion of Research Mentoring Training through “Building Mentoring Skills for an Academic Career”, Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, Cornell, Apr. 2017

  • Ad Hoc Reference for a Cornell Freshman Summer External Internship Application (accepted), Dec. 2014

 

Professional Services

  • Referee: American Economic Review; American Economic Review: Insights; Applied Economics; Applied Economics Letters; Decision Support Systems; Demographic Research; Economics Bulletin; Frontiers in Public Health; Frontiers in Research Metrics & Analytics; Health Economics; Health Economics, Policy, and Law; Health Information Management Journal; Health Policy; Information System Research; International Journal of Drug Policy; International Journal of Industrial Organization; INQUIRY; Journal of Health Economics; Journal of Labor Economics; Management Science; Production and Operations Management; Research Policy; Social Science Research

  • Scientific Review Committee: American Society of Health Economists Conference, 2018-2024; Academy of Management Conference, 2018; Award Committee member for the AOM Health Care Management Division Outstanding Paper Based on a Dissertation, 2020; the Meetings of Young Economists, 2023-now

  • Advisory board member: Research on Innovation, Science and Entrepreneurship Workshop (RISE), 2021-now

  • Co-founder: IHEA Digital Health Technology special interest group, 2024 & inaugural ECR convener 2024-now

  • Co-chair & co-organizer: AOM Patent Professional Development Workshop (i.e., the Patent PDW), 2023, 2024 

  • Co-organizer: AEA CSWEP Mentoring Workshop for 3rd + Year Women & Non-Binary PhD Students in Economics & Econ-adjacent Fields, 2022 Fall; Univ.-wide Conferences for Teaching and Learning (Spring & Fall 2017), Cornell

  • Others: Financial investigator & team leader for China Banking Association Micro Entrepreneurship Awards, 2010; Founder of the “Fledgling Eagle Project/Scholarship” for Migrant Children in Rural Beijing, 2010

Seminars
seminars

I am a co-founder and inaugural convener (ECR) for the Digital Health Technology (DHT) special interest group (SIG) at the International Health Economics Association (established 2024.2). I also serve as the inaugural program chair for the ASHEcon Innovation and Digitization program area (established 2024.8). See "IHEA and ASHEcon Introduce 2024 Initiatives in Digital Health and Innovation" (ASHEcon newsletter Issue 2024:3). I have co-organized the AOM Patent Professional Development Workshop ("the patent PDW") for 2023 and 2024. I currently organize the UMass Amherst Health Works-in-Progress seminars. I'll update the health/innovation-related webinar/workshop resources below. 

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UMass Amherst Health Economics Seminars​​

  • Fall 2025 dept seminar: Leila Agha (Harvard Med), 9/19; health WIPS: Randy Ellis (BU), 10/24, Said Arslan (UMass) practice job talk, 11/7

  • Sp 2025 health WIPS: 2/7 Anupam Bapu Jena (Harvard Med), 2/12 faculty mixer: Lucy X Wang, Michal Horný, Jeannine Blake, Weiqi Chu (all UMass: resecon, public health, nursing, math/stats), 2/19 Liz Evans (UMass), 2/28 (co-sponsor w CSSI) Tong Liu (MIT Sloan), 3/5 Shyam Raman (Williams College), 3/13(->4/2026) Andrew Ching (JHU Carey, Econ & PH), 3/26 Emma Dean (Dartmouth TDI); 4/4 Jianjing Lin (UMass); 4/9 Steve Lehrer & Weili Ding (Queen's U); 4/16 Rong Rong (UMass); 4/23 Lucy Xiaolu Wang (UMass); 4/30 Shengmao Cao (Northwestern Kellog); 5/7 student mixer: Said Arslan, Ian Miller (UMass: resource econ, biomedical engineering/econ)

  • Fall 2024 dept seminar: 9/27 Kelly Ragan (Stockholm School of Economics), 10/25 Jacqueline Lane (HBS)

  • Fall 2024 health WIPS: 11/8 Kelly Yang (Indiana Kelley), 11/22 Gaurab Aryal (BU), 12/13 graduate student mixer: Said Arslan, Samyuktha Bardi, Bijesh Gyawali, Amir Khosheghbal, Taehyun Kim (UMass: resec, polsci, engineering)

  • Fall 2024 IO brownbag health topic (online): 10/18 Alden Cheng (NBER/UIUC Gies)

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IHEA Digital Health Technology (DHT) SIG Webinars

  • DHT SIG ECR Zoom mixer, 7 flash talks, three main topic areas: telehealth, health-innovation, and algorithm-health, presenters: Zhang Zhang, JHU; Alex Wellsjo, UCSD; Thomas Schaper, ZEW Mannheim; Ann-Christin Kreyer, MPI; Evora H Zhu, CUHK; Emma Dean, Dartmouth TDI; April Y Wu, CUHK, 2024-9-19, flyer, register here.

  • DHT SIG inaugural webinar, "Digital Innovation in Healthcare: The Role of Telemedicine and Artificial Intelligence," featuring David Cutler (Harvard) and Dan Zeltzer (Tel Aviv), 2024-4-23 flyer, recording.

 

AOM Patent Professional Development Workshop (the "Patent PDW")

  • Website hosting past workshop content; I co-organized and co-chaired the 2023 and 2024 editions. 

  • 2024 co-organizer: Thomas Schaper (ZEW Mannheim); presenters: Matt Marx (Cornell), Paola Criscuolo (Imperial College London), Tony Tong (UC Boulder); discussants: Andy Toole (USPTO), Jeff Furman (BU); flyer

  • 2023 co-organizer: Sina Khoshsokhan (U Colorado Boulder); presenters: Dietmar Harhoff (MPI), Myriam Mariani (Bocconi), Kenneth Huang (NUS); discussant: John Walsh (Georgia Tech); flyer

(c) © Lucy Xiaolu Wang 2025

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