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Derrick Xu 徐明垚

Hello, welcome to my website! I am an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Southampton. I completed my PhD at the University of Bristol and then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, where I remain a guest researcher.

My current research explores the motives behind prosocial behaviour in contexts such as charitable giving, climate change, and political polarisation. I combine applied microeconomic tools with computer science methods to analyse non-traditional data, uncovering behavioural insights that inform solutions to social challenges.

Email: derrick.mingyao.xu@gmail.com

Linkedin | Google Scholar | CV

Publication

Only in My Backyard: The Effect of Flood Exposure on Environmental Behavior (sole-author)

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management | draft | published version

Do people care more about environment after climate disasters? I find that those directly affected by flooding do, but most don’t change their action when their neighbours are hit, except for those with strong moral universalist values.

Working Paper

Spillovers in the Charitable Market: Evidence from Reputation Shocks (sole-author)

Revise & Resubmit at Economic Journal | draft

When a big charity is hit by scandal, do people give elsewhere or stop donating altogether? I find donors don’t give up on giving; instead, they shift support to other similar charities, identified by the words charities use in their missions.

Do Crises Increase Parochialism? Evidence from Donations during COVID (with Esteban Jaimovich and Sarah Smith)

Submitted | draft

Does a universal crisis make people more locally focused? We show that donors shifted their giving towards local charities after Covid, more so in harder-hit, and cohesive communities. Those more affected also became less responsive to overseas disaster appeals. And places with larger rises in parochialism saw quicker rebounds in wellbeing.

Work in Progress

The Evolution of Prosociality (with Maja Adena)
Decision-making of Charities in Face of Competition (with Andreas Lange, Jonathan Meer, and Jan Schmitz)
Emotional Giving (under re-construction)

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