Zhikun

I am Zhikun Lu, an incoming assistant professor of operations and business analytics at NYU Shanghai. I obtained my PhD in Business from the Goizueta Business School at Emory Univeristy, advised by Ruomeng Cui and Tianshu Sun. My research focuses on causality-driven decision making (what is CDDM?) with applications in online retail, supply chains, and digital entertainment, utilizing techniques from causal inference, machine learning, and optimization. I have collaborated with leading tech companies, including Alibaba, Amazon, and Tencent, developing causal-machine-learning-based optimization models to improve various business outcomes, such as sales, customer lifetime value, and user engagement. I am passionate about discovering innovative ideas, mastering new skills, and applying them to address real-world business challenges.
Contact: zhikun.lu[at]nyu.edu
Google Scholar	SSRN Author Page	Emory Profile	Curriculum Vitae

Publication

1. "Sooner or Later? Promising Delivery Speed in Online Retail," with Ruomeng Cui, Tianshu Sun, and Joe Golden, 2024, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (a top business journal, UTD24, FT50)

2. "How Contagious Was the Panic of 1907? New Evidence from Trust Company Stocks," with Caroline Fohlin, 2021, AEA Papers and Proceedings (a leading journal for econ faculty)

Working Paper

3. "The Value of Last-mile Delivery in Online Retail" with Ruomeng Cui, Tianshu Sun, and Lixia Wu, Major Revision at Management Science (a top business journal, UTD24, FT50)

4. "Preferential Credit Policy with Sectoral Markup Heterogeneity" with Kaiji Chen, Yuxuan Huang, Xuewen Liu, and Yong Wang, Revise & Resubmit

5. "A Model of China’s Economic Vertical Structure" with Xi Li, Xuewen Liu, and Yong Wang, Revise & Resubmit

6. "Short Sale Bans May Improve Market Quality During Crises: New Evidence from the 2020 Covid Crash" with Caroline Fohlin and Nan Zhou, Working Paper
– See VoxEU Column for a non-technical summary

Work in Progress

7. "Incentives in Online Gaming: Optimal Policy Design with Dynamic Causal Machine Learning" with Ruomeng Cui and Yang Su, Woking Paper
– INFORMS Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA (2024, 2025 scheduled)

8. "Food Delivery Platform Expansion Strategies: A Structural Approach" with Ruomeng Cui and Wenchang Zhang, Woking Paper
– POMS Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA (2025)