Song Yao (姚松)

Associate Professor of Marketing, Washington University

Principal Economist, Amazon Core AI

Home    CV    Research    Teaching    Data

Research Interest: Advertising, Online Marketing, New Media, Auctions, Pricing.

Publications (links to working papers): 

1. Yicheng Song, Wenbo Wang, and Song Yao (2024), “Customer Acquisition via Explainable Deep Reinforcement Learning,” Information Systems Research, forthcoming. 

2. Raphael Thomadsen, Robert Zeithammer, and Song Yao (2023), “Impact of a Supreme Court Decision on the Preferences of Americans regarding Abortion Policy,” Management Science, 69(9), pp. 5405-5417. 

3. Daljord, Øystein, Carl F. Mela, Jason Roos, Jim Sprigg, and Song Yao (2022), “The Design and Targeting of Compliance Promotions,” Marketing Science, forthcoming.

4. Zhao, Nan, Song Yao, Raphael Thomadsen, and Zack Wang (2022), “The Impact of Government Interventions on COVID-19 Spread and Consumer Spending,” Management Science, forthcoming.

5. Stephan Seiler, Anna Tuchman, and Song Yao (2021), “The Impact of Soda Taxes: Pass-through, Tax Avoidance, and Nutritional Effects,” Journal of Marketing Research, 58(1), pp. 22-49.

   • Finalist, 2021 AMA Paul E. Green Award.

6. Meng Liu, Raphael Thomadsen, and Song Yao (2020),  “Forecasting the Spread of COVID-19 under Different Reopening Strategies,” Scientific Reports, 10, 20367.

7. Bryan Bollinger and Song Yao (2018), “Risk Transfer versus Cost Reduction on Two-Sided Microfinance Platforms,” Quantitative Marketing and Economics, 16(3), pp. 251-287.

8. Seiler, Stephan, and Song Yao (2017), “The Impact of Advertising along the Conversion Funnel,” Quantitative Marketing and Economics, 15(3), pp. 241-278.

   • Runner-up, 2018 QME Dick Wittink Prize.

9. Seiler, Stephan, Song Yao, and Wenbo Wang (2017), “Does Online Word-of-Mouth Increase Demand? (and How?) Evidence from a Natural Experiment,” Marketing Science, 36(6), pp. 838–861.

10. Yao, Song, Wenbo Wang and Yuxin Chen (2017), “TV Channel Search and Commercial Breaks,” Journal of Marketing Research, 54(5), pp. 671-686.

11. Chen, Yuxin and Song Yao (2017), “Sequential Search with Refinement: Model and Application with Click-stream Data,” Management Science, 63(12), pp. 4345-4365.

12. Anja Lambrecht, Avi Goldfarb, Alessandro Bonatti, Anindya Ghose, Daniel G. Goldstein, Randall Lewis, Anita Rao, Navdeep Sahni, and Song Yao (2014) “How Do Firms Make Money Selling Digital Goods Online?” Marketing Letters, 25, pp. 331-341.

13. Yao, Song, Carl F. Mela, Jeongwen Chiang, and Yuxin Chen (2012) “Determining Consumers' Discount Rates With Field Studies,” Journal of Marketing Research, 49(6), pp. 822-841.

    • Winner, 2012 AMA Paul E. Green Award.

14. Yao, Song and Carl F. Mela (2011), “A Dynamic Model of Sponsored Search Advertising,” Marketing Science, 30 (3), pp. 447-468. 

    • Winner, 2009 AMA John A. Howard Award.

    • Finalist, 2011 INFORMS John D.C. Little Best Paper Award.           

    • Finalist, 2011, 2012 INFORMS Frank M. Bass Best Dissertation Paper Award.

15. Yao, Song and Carl F. Mela (2009), “Sponsored Search Auctions: Research Opportunities in Marketing,” Foundations and Trends in Marketing, Vol. 3: No 2, pp. 75-126.

16. Yao, Song and Carl F. Mela (2008), “Online Auction Demand,” Marketing Science, 27 (5), pp. 861–885.

    • Finalist, 2017 INFORMS Long Term Impact Award.

    • Finalist, 2008 INFORMS John D.C. Little Best Paper Award.

Working papers:

• Karaman, Hulya, Cheolho Song, Tat Chan, and Song Yao, “Spillover Effects of Online Reviews: Evidence From the Hotel Industry.”

• Yoo, Hyesung, Song Yao, Ravi Bapna, and Jui Ramaprasad, "Search Frictions, Sorting and Matching in Two-Sided Markets."

• Zhang, Kenan, Hongyu Chen, Song Yao, Linli Xu, Jiaoju Ge, Xiaobo Liu, and Yu (Marco) Nie (2020), "An Efficiency Paradox of Uberization."

• Wang, Chong Bo (Zack), Qiyuan Wang, Tat Chan, and Song Yao, “Using Field Experiments to Infer Cross-Side Network Effects in the Ride-Sharing Market.”

• Yoo, Hyesung, Maria Ana Vitorino, and Song Yao, “Hospital Competition and Quality: Evidence from the Entry of High-Speed Train in South Korea.” (Manuscript available upon request)

• Stephan Seiler, Song Yao and Georgios Zervas (2018), "Causal Inference in Word-of-Mouth Research: Methods and Results," in preparation for Customer Analytics for Maximum Impact: Academic Insights and Business Use Cases, Taylor & Francis (CRC Press), edited by S. Seetharaman. 

Work in progress:

• Yoo, Hyesung and Song Yao, “Using Machine Learning to Address Customer Privacy Concerns”.