Ying Bao

Assistant Professor of Marketing

Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

My research uses causal inference and game theory to study digital platforms — how quality disclosure, content moderation, and commission design shape what firms and consumers do. A second line of work examines food marketing and consumer well-being, from consumption tracking to the link between obesity and food-tax policy.

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Portrait of Ying Bao
Research interests Digital Marketing Platform Design Technology Adoption Behavioral Economics Food Marketing
Education
Ph.D., Marketing (Quantitative) Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto · 2020
M.A., Economics University of Toronto · 2014
B.Sc., Financial Economics University of Toronto · 2013
01

Research

Publications / peer-reviewed

  1. 05

    Personalized nutrition: perspectives on challenges, opportunities, and guiding principles for data use and fusion

    Donovan, S. M., Abrahams, M., Anthony, J. C., Bao, Y., Barragan, M., Bermingham, K. M., … Winters, B. L.

    Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 1–18.

    2025 doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2025.2461237
  2. 04

    Forgetful Consumers and Consumption Tracking

    Ying Bao, Peter Landry, Mengze Shi

    Management Science, 71(3), 2311–2331.

    2025 doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.00522

    Media coverage: Forward Pathway · University of Illinois News.

  3. 03

    BMI/Obesity and consumers’ price sensitivity: Implications for food tax policies

    Ying Bao, Matthew Osborne, Emily Wang, Edward C. Jaenicke

    PNAS Nexus, Vol. 3, Issue 6, pgae190.

    2024 doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae190

    Selected for press release. Media coverage: Medical Xpress, Chicago Booth Review, The Conversation, Yahoo!, MSN, and others.

  4. 02

    Leveraging visual cues and pricing strategies: An empirical investigation of the pre-owned luxury market

    Alex Yao, Ying Bao

    Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 15(2), 286–301.

    2022 doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2022.2085609
  5. 01

    Designing Product Development Contracts in the Presence of Managerial Lobbying

    Ying Bao, Mengze Shi, Ajay Kalra

    Management Science, 68(9), 6797–6818.

    2022 doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4217

Working Papers / under review

  1. W1

    The Effect of Quality Disclosure on Market Dynamics: Evidence from Online Review Platforms

    Ying Bao, Limin Fang, Matthew Osborne

    Minor Revision Marketing Science

    Selected for presentation at ASSA (2025), the Digital Economics Conference (2024), the NBER Digital Economics & AI Meeting (2024), the Marketing Strategy Consortium (2024), the Marketing Dynamics Conference (2024), and SICS (2024).

  2. W2

    Spiral of Silence: How Neutral Moderation Polarizes Content Creation

    Ying Bao, Jessie Liu

    Major Revision Management Science

    Selected for presentation at POMS (2025), IIOC (2025), the Marketing Science Conference (2025), the CESifo Venice Summer Institute (2025), the Marketing Theory Seminars (2025), and the UTD Frank Bass Conference (2026).

  3. W3

    A Strategic Analysis of Tiered Commission Schemes in Online Marketplaces

    Ying Bao, Amir Fazli, Antino Kim

    Under Review

    Selected for presentation at POMS (2024).

  4. W4

    BMI, Food Purchase, and Promotion Sensitivity

    Ying Bao, Matthew Osborne, Emily Wang, Edward Jaenicke

    Reject & Resubmit Marketing Science
  5. W5

    When Good Intentions Backfire: How Corporate Perceptions Shape Consumer Attention and Conservation in Utility Markets

    Cindy Wang, Ying Bao, Hong Yuan

    Under Review
  6. W6

    The Effect of Ownership Structure on Service Response to Competition: Evidence from the Restaurant Industry

    Ying Bao, Limin Fang, Jessica Gu, Aric Rindfleisch

    Working paper

    Selected for presentation at the Marketing Science Conference (2025) and AMA Summer (2025).

  7. W7

    The Effect of Online Review Platforms on Product Variety

    Jessica Gu, Ying Bao, Limin Fang, Aric Rindfleisch

    Working paper
02

Teaching

UIUC · 2021 – present

Interests: Consumer Analytics · Business Analytics · Marketing Analytics · Marketing Research

Undergraduate

BADM 395 2021 – present

Consumer Analytics in R

Teaching Excellence ’23 · ’24 · ’25 · ’26
BADM 322 2024 – present

Marketing Research

Teaching Excellence ’24 · ’25 · ’26
BADM 211 2021 – 2023

Business Analytics in Python

Teaching Excellence ’23

Graduate

BADM 590 2021 – present

Consumer Analytics in R

Teaching Excellence ’23 · ’24 · ’25 · ’26