Associate Professor · HKUST · Department of ISOM

Xuhu Wan

Research at the intersection of economic theory, finance, and AI — dynamic contracting, information design, AI + game theory, and machine-learning approaches for alternative data.

In Progress

Working Papers

Theoretical contributions currently in revision. Drafts available on request.

2025 · Theory

Dynamic Monitoring and Information Design

When the principal designs both monitoring intensity and information disclosed to the agent, optimal contracts combine state-dependent monitoring with strategically obfuscated signals — bridging dynamic contracting and Bayesian persuasion.

January 2024 · 42 pages · Single-authored

Effort-Induced Impatience and Optimal Compensation Design

A continuous-time principal-agent model where the agent's impatience rises endogenously with effort. Optimal payment threshold is non-monotonic — backloaded at low risk, frontloaded above a critical level — with closed-form implementations via debt, credit lines, and inside equity.

Peer-Reviewed

Publications

Selected publications in management science, finance, and mathematics journals.

  1. 2015
    Sung, J., and Wan, X. A general equilibrium model of a multi-firm moral-hazard economy with financial markets. Mathematical Finance, 25(4), 827–868.
  2. 2013
    Cvitanić, J., and Wan, X. Dynamics of contract design with screening. Management Science, 59(5), 1229–1244.
  3. 2012
    Ju, N., and Wan, X. Optimal compensation and pay-performance sensitivity in a continuous-time principal-agent model. Management Science, 58(3), 641–657.
  4. 2010
    Goukasian, L., and Wan, X. Optimal incentive contracts under relative income concerns. Mathematics and Financial Economics, 4(1), 57–86.
  5. 2009
    Cvitanić, J., Wan, X., and Zhang, J. Optimal compensation with hidden action and lump-sum payment in a continuous-time model. Applied Mathematics and Optimization, 59(1), 99–146.
  6. 2008
    Cvitanić, J., Wan, X., and Zhang, J. Principal-agent problems with exit options. B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, 8(1).
  7. 2006
    Cvitanić, J., Wan, X., and Zhang, J. Optimal contracts in continuous-time models. Journal of Applied Mathematics and Stochastic Analysis.
Profiles & Contact

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[email protected]