Lucy Liu 2014/11/13

Yu-Hsi Liu (Lucy Liu)

Cell: +886-952-671-353
Email: laches2@gmail.com ; yliu19400@suffolk.edu
http://www.yuhsiliu.com/
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Economics, Suffolk University, Boston, MA (Expected graduation date: May 2015)
Dissertation Title: How Do Social and Spatial Networks Influence Revenue? Evidence from the
Movie Industry
Dissertation Committee: Darlene Chisholm, George Norman and Jongbyung Jun
M.A., Economics, Boston University, Boston, MA, 2008
M.A., Finance, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2001
B.A., Economics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 1998
FIELDS OF INTEREST
Empirical Industrial Organization, Applied Microeconomics, Cultural Economics
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Adjunct Professor, Applied Statistics (STATS250), Department of Economics, Suffolk University, Fall
2010 to Summer 2012, (Evaluation: 4.4/5.0)
Grading Assistant, Biological Statistics, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Boston University,
Spring 2007
WORKING PAPER
How Does Online Word-of-Mouth Influence Movie Revenue? Evidence from Twitter, Revised and resubmitted for publication, September 2014.
Do Professional Critics Diverge from Public Opinion? Evidence from Twitter, June 2014
Strategic Product Re-Design in Spatially Complex Markets: Evidence from Motion Pictures, (joint
work with Darlene C. Chisholm and George Norman), 2014
CONFERENCES AND PRESENTATIONS
1. How Does Online Word-of-Mouth Influence Movie Revenue: Evidence from Twitter
International Industrial Organization Conference, Graduate Student Rising Star Session, Discussed
by Michael Luca, of the Harvard Business School March 2012, Arlington, VA.
2. How Does Online Word-of-Mouth Influence Movie Revenue: Evidence from Twitter, 17th
Association for Cultural Economics International Conference, June 2012, Kyoto, Japan.
3. How Do Spatial and Social Networks Influence Demands, Association for Cultural Economics
International Young Scholars Workshop, June 2012, Kyoto, Japan.
4. Strategic Product Re-Design in Spatially Complex Markets: Evidence from Motion Pictures, joint
work with Darlene C. Chisholm and George Norman, Allied Social Science Meeting, Industrial
Organization Society Session, January 2014, Philadelphia, PA; also at 15th Annual Mallen
Conference on Motion-Picture Economics, Yale University, October 2013
5. Do Professional Critics Diverge from Public Opinion? Evidence from Twitter, 18th Association
for Cultural Economics International Conference, June 2014, Montreal, Canada.
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Lucy Liu 2014/11/13

WORKING EXPERIENCE
Adjunct Instructor, Suffolk University, Boston, MA, 2010-2012
Financial Analyst in Global Service, State Street Corporation, Boston, MA, 2008
Assistant Research Fellow, Division of International Affairs, Taiwan Institute of Economics Research,
Taipei, Taiwan, 20032006
Op-Ed Columnist, China Times, Taipei, Taiwan, 2005-2006
Special Contributor, Phoenix Weekly, Beijing, China, 2003-2005
Financial Asset Management Officer, Taiwan Fixed Network, Taipei, Taiwan, 2001-2003
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
2014 Research Grant from Taiwan Art Gallery Association
Travel Grants from the Association for Cultural Economics International Conference, 2012
Tuition wavier scholarship for PhD in Economics, Suffolk University (2009-2012)
Research Fellowship, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, 1999-2001
REFEREE EXPERIENCE
Journal of Cultural Economics
OTHER EXPERIENCE AND PRIZES
Taipei Literature Prize, 2005
Taipei Public Transportation Literature Prize, 2004
OTHER PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION EXPERIENCE
Chinese Taipei Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Study Center, Assistant Research Fellow,
2004-2006
Chinese Taipei PECC (Pacific Economic Cooperation Council), Trade Forum Coordinator, 2005-2006
LANGUAGES
Native in Taiwanese and Mandarin, Fluent in English
COMPUTER SKILLS
STATA, R, SAS, MATLAB, HTML, Microsoft Office
CITIZENSHIP
Taiwan
REFERENCES
Professor Darlene Chisholm

Professor Jongbyung Jun

Professor Alison Kelly

Department of Economics
Suffolk University
73 Tremont St., Rm. 1028.
Boston, MA 02215 USA
Phone: 1-617.305.1932
Email:
darlene.chisholm@suffolk.edu

Department of Economics
Suffolk University
73 Tremont St., Rm. 1016.
Boston, MA 02215 USA
Phone: 1-617.994.4257
Fax: 1-617.994.4216
Email: jjun@suffolk.edu

Department of Economics
Suffolk University
73 Tremont St. Rm. 1010
Boston, MA 02215 USA
Phone: 1-617.573.8069
Fax: 1-617.994.4216
Email: akelly@suffolk.edu

Lucy Liu 2014/11/13

Yu-Hsi Liu

How Does Online Word-of-Mouth Influence Movie Revenue? Evidence from Twitter

This paper measures how online word-of-mouth communication influences movie box-office revenue.
Theoretical models interpret word-of-mouth as a process of quality learning. However, it is often argued
that in online word-of-mouth, consumers may not care about quality learning, but just about fads. Using
Twitter data collected from May 2011 through August 2011, this paper attempts to verify the argument
that negative opinions raise peoples awareness, which may also increase interest. After controlling
for movie-specific effects, this paper finds that both tweet volume and valence are positively correlated
with box-office revenue. Given that box-office revenue usually decreases over time, the increase in the
ratio of positive comments at time t will slows the decline in box-office revenue at time t-1. The effect
of valence on box-office revenue is linear, and professional critics do not overwhelm the significance of
online word-of-mouth valence. Moreover, the interaction term between valence and volume is
insignificant, showing that high volume cannot offset the negative impact of low valence. The
hypothesis that negative opinions raise peoples awareness, which may also increase interest is not
supported. These results provide evidence on consumers learning patterns on social networking
websites, suggesting that quality learning may occur in online word-of-mouth communication.

Do Professional Critics Diverge from Public Opinion? Evidence from Twitter

This paper tests whether expert judgment diverges from collective opinion in social networks. According to
Bourdieus (1979) perspective, in cultural offerings, the public usually have bad taste, which differs from
professional evaluation. Some literature has focused on the role of professional critics in mass markets, but
little research examines how public opinion converges or diverges from professional criticism dynamically.
Using Twitter data collected from May 2011 to Aug 2011, this paper measures how movie tweets relate to
professional film critics reviews on a weekly basis. After controlling for movie-specific effects, this paper
reveals the positive correlations between professional judgment, ordinary evaluation and public appeal.
Moreover, the gap between ordinary evaluation and professional judgment decreases over time. This implies
that consumers opinions converge with professionals evaluations after consumers learn true movie qualities.
The results show that ordinary consumers revise their expectation and converge to experts opinion after the
opening weekend, suggesting little influence effect of critics. This paper confirms that the online public
appears to have good taste in movie consumption.

Strategic Product Re-Design in Spatially Complex Markets: Evidence from Motion-Pictures (joint
work with Darlene C. Chisholm and George Norman)
We analyze strategic product exit using data on motion-pictures exhibition choice in a major metropolitan
first-run market. Our analysis formalizes the spatial dimension of competition and measures its importance in
the strategic exhibition life cycle of films within and across chains. Preliminary results indicate that a films
survival at a particular theatre is affected by intra-firm relative performance and inter-firm competitive
pressures. We find that theatres compete for market share with neighboring theatres by increasing the time to
exit when the competing theatre is owned by a different chain, and avoid business stealing from neighboring
theatres within the same chain.