Title: Flatten the curve: Effects of geotagging on user engagement in Weibo Hashtags (with Jianghao Wang and Song Yuan)

Speaker: Wang Ao (Ao Wang), Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Warwick, UK; Research Fellow, Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE), University of Warwick. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from CREST, France in 2020. Prior to that, he received an Engineer Diploma jointly awarded by École Polytechnique (Paris) and École Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Économique (ENSAE Paris), and a Bachelor of Science degree in Probability and Statistics from Peking University. His research focuses on applying and developing structural model methods to explore policy and welfare issues in industrial organization—including demand estimation, dynamic pricing, and vertical relationships—while also covering asset pricing and social media. He has also made achievements in econometric methods, with a focus on panel data, nonparametric estimation, and high-dimensional models. His papers have been published (or are forthcoming) in top international academic journals such as "Journal of the European Economic Association", "Journal of Econometrics", "Econometric Theory" and "Economics Letters". For more details, please refer to his personal homepage: https://sites.google.com/view/aowang-economics/home

Abstract: This study examines the effects of mandatory geotagging on user engagement with hashtags on Sina Weibo, China’s largest social media platform. Analyzing nearly 290,000 top hashtags from 2019 to 2023, we find that geotagging significantly reduces active user interactions (posts, comments) more than passive engagement (reads). Using a structural SIR-style model, we identify a pronounced flattening of interactive engagement, including for topics such as COVID-19 and the Ukraine war. Our results highlight how geotagging reshapes online dynamics, suggesting it may more effectively deter interaction with incivil content than with general discourse.

Date & time: 30 June 2025, 14:00-15:30

Venue: B423, Zhixin Building, Central Campus, Shandong University