Problem Definition: An on-demand service platform relies on independent workers (agents) who decide how much time, if any, to devote to the platform. Some labor advocates have argued that an expansion of the labor pool hurts agents—by reducing the wage and agent utilization (i.e., the fraction...

Online social advertising tools such as Groupon and Living Social generate new business for service providers and at the same time generate new challenges. By doing promotion, a firm may unavoidably attract deal hunters who are less likely to continue to purchase the service after promotion....

Problem Definition: We have witnessed a rapid rise of on-demand platforms, such as Uber, in the past few years. While these platforms allow workers to choose their own working hours, they have limited leverage in maintaining the availability of workers within a region. As such, platforms often...

Recently, there has been a rapid rise of on-demand ride-hailing platforms, such as Uber and Didi, which allow passengers with smart phones to submit trip requests and match them to drivers based on their locations and drivers' availability. This increased demand has raised questions about how...

Infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19 pose significant public health threats and challenges worldwide due to their high transmissibility and potentially severe symptoms and complications. Although public health interventions such as social distancing and lockdown can slow the disease...

COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease and has been spread to most countries of the world with unprecedented transmission speed. Medical resources and treatments provided by the healthcare system are most critical to reduce the mortality rate of COVID-19 and to contain the spread of COVID-19 by...