Cheng Lu

Cheng Lu (路程)

Ph.D. Candidate in Marketing Science

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Welcome! This is Cheng Lu.

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Marketing Science at Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis. I am advised by Prof. Dennis Zhang. My research is organized around a broad question: as AI systems become increasingly central to marketing practice and research, how can we draw credible conclusions from these systems and evaluate whether they create value? On the methodological side, I develop statistical machine learning methods with rigorous guarantees for marketing decision-making. On the applied side, I study the real-world effects of AI and digital platform interventions, such as LLM-assisted advertising and referral programs, using causal inference and large-scale field experiments.

Research Interests

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Causal Inference
  • Field Experiments
  • Social Media Platforms

Education

  • Ph.D. Candidate in Marketing Science, Washington University in St. Louis, 2023 - Present
  • M.A. in Management, London Business School, 2022 - 2023
  • B.S. in Economics, Tsinghua University, 2018 - 2022

Research

Job Market Paper

  1. "Generative Augmented Inference of LLM-generated Data for Market Research: Theory and Empirical Evidence." Cheng Lu, Mengxin Wang, Dennis J. Zhang, and Heng Zhang.

    First Prize, Buchan Prize Paper Competition

Publication

  1. "Generative Augmented Inference." Cheng Lu, Mengxin Wang, Dennis J. Zhang, and Heng Zhang. Forthcoming at ICML (2026).

Working Papers

  1. "A New Estimator for Encouragement Design in Randomized Controlled Trials When the Exclusion Restriction Is Violated." Guangying Chen, Cheng Lu, Tat Chan, Zhengling Qi, Dennis J. Zhang, and Industry Collaborators. Major Revision at Marketing Science.

    Runner-up, 2024 INFORMS IS Cluster Best Paper Award

  2. "Evaluating Reactivation Referral Programs at Scale: Evidence from A Large Social Media Platform." Meng Liu, Cheng Lu, Xiang Hui, and Dennis J. Zhang. Submitted.

Work in Progress

  1. "The Role of LLMs in Ads Personalization." with Raphael Thomadsen, Song Yao, and Dennis J. Zhang.

  2. "Enhancing the Power of Instrumental Variables with Higher-order Variation." with Guangying Chen, Tat Chan, Zhengling Qi, and Dennis J. Zhang.

Teaching

Teaching Assistant, Washington University in St. Louis

  • Applied Marketing Research, Undergraduate, Fall 2024 and Fall 2025
  • Marketing Research Analytics, Master, Fall 2024 and Fall 2025
  • Understanding & Conducting Business Experiments, Undergraduate, Spring 2025
  • A/B Testing in Business and Social Science, Master, Spring 2025 and Spring 2026

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