Dr. Yutian Chen

Yutian Chen headshot on a white background.

Dr. Yutian Chen is a professor and chair of Economics at California State University, Long Beach. She received her Ph.D. from SUNY Stony Brook in 2007. Her research interests include industrial organization, game theory, and interdisciplinary study of the application of game theory in network and reinforcement learning. Her research has been supported by an NSF grant, with which she has been able to guide and support several graduate and undergraduate student research. Her research articles have been published in leading journals including the International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of Economics, Naval Research Logistics, and ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, cooking, and traveling.

Fields of Interests

  • Industrial Organization
  • Game Theory
  • Microeconomics

Download Dr. Chen's CV

Journal Publications

  • Strategic Partial Outsourcing in the Presence of Single-source Components (with Y.-J. Chen), Journal of Economics, 131, 2020
  • Learning by Outward FDI: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises (with Y. Yang and Z. Wu), Panoeconomicus, 2017
  • Strategic Outsourcing under Economies of Scale (with D. Sen), Bulletin of Economic Research, 67(2), 2015. 
  • Strategic Outsourcing under Technology Spillovers (with Y.-J. Chen), Naval Research Logistics, 61(7), 2014
  • Outsourcing and Downstream R&D under Economies of Scale (with D. Sen), B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, 12(1), 2012.
  • A Theory on Predatory Advertising after A Demand-reducing Shock (with W. Tan), Eastern Economic Journal, 38(4), 2012
  • Outsourcing Induced by Strategic Competition (with P. Dubey and D. Sen), International Journal of Industrial Organization, 29(4), 2011
  • Strategic Sourcing for Entry Deterrence and Tacit Collusion, Journal of Economics, 102(2), 2011
  • Strategic Outsourcing between Rivals, Annals of Economics and Finance, 11(2), 2010 

Conference Proceedings

  • Profit-Based File Replication in Data-Intensive Cloud Data Centers (with M. Alghamdi and B. Tang), Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Communications, Paris, France, 2017.
  • Data Preservation in Base Station-less Sensor Networks: A Game Theoretic Approach (with B. Tang), Proceedings of the 6th EAI International Conference on Game Theory for Networks, Kelowna, BC, Canada, 2016.
  • Data Caching in Ad Hoc Networks Using Game-Theoretic Analysis (with B. Tang), Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Sensor Networks, Ubiquitous, and Trust-worthy Computing (SUTC'10), Newport Beach, California, 2010.

Working Papers

  • Should Traditional Retailers Function as Pre-warehouses of Online Retailers? (with H. Xiong and Y.-J. Chen), under revision
  • Raising Price to Encourage Brand Loyalty: A New Explanation for the "Generic Competition Paradox" (with S. Seiji)
  • Pricing Patterns of Digital Computer Games (with C. Ng)
  • Strategic Advertising: Evidence in the Pharmaceutical Industry (with W. Tan)

Courses Taught

ECON 430 - Industrial Organization

The structure, behavior, and performance of firms and industries. Implications of separation of ownership and control, Corporate social responsibility and the profit motive. The dilemma of size versus competition.

ECON 330 - Game Theory

A formal study of conflict and cooperation, and their application to modeling and analyzing an interactive situation, especially in the context of microeconomics.

ECON 300 - Fundamentals of Economics

Designed for non‑majors. Presents basic training in economics for social studies teachers or citizens who wish to exercise a reasoned judgment about economic issues in public affairs.

ECON 101 - Principles of Microeconomics

Business organization, price theory, allocation of resources, distribution of income, public economy.

ECON 333 - Managerial Economics

The tools of marginal analysis and their application to managerial decisions and planning. Emphasis upon calculating solutions to operational problems. Topics include demand analysis, production and cost, pricing, and output decisions. Product and factor markets will be analyzed.

Collaborative Research: CISE-MSI: RCBP-RF: CNS: Truthful and Optimal Data Preservation in Base Station-less Sensor Networks: An Integrated Game Theory and Network Flow Approach

Overview:

This project is collaborated between California State University Long Beach (CSULB)Economics Department and California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH)Computer Science Department. The collaboration is to build research capacity and develop interdisciplinary partnerships between these two minority-serving institutions (MSIs).

The overarching goal of the project is to create a truthful and optimal resource allocation framework for emerging base station-less sensor networks (BSNs). As BSNs are deployed in challenging environments (e.g., underwater exploration), there is no data-collecting base station available in the BSN. The paramount task of the BSN is to preserve large amounts of generated data inside the BSN before uploading opportunities become available. Previous research designed a sequence of cooperative data preservation techniques based on classic network flows (e.g., maximum (weighted) flow and minimum cost flow). In a distributed setting and under different control, however, the sensor nodes with limited resources (i.e., energy power and storage spaces) could behave selfishly in order to save their own resources and maximize their own benefits. The tension between node-centric selfishness and data-centric data preservation in our unique BSN model gives rise to new challenge that calls for integrated study of game theory and network flows in the same problem space.

This project is supported by NSF Grant 2131309.

Key Words: Wireless Sensor Networks, Game Theory, Network Flows, CloudAccess

Personnel:

  • Faculty: Yutian Chen (PI) and Bin Tang (Co-PI)
  • Students supported through this grant: Rachel Varghese, Justin Gamoras, Grace Huang (CSULB Economics Undergraduate Students), Jose Chavez, Broian Rios (CSULB Economics Graduate Students), Giovanni Rivera, Jennifer Ly (CSUDH CS Undergraduate Students), Yuning Yu, Shangli Hsu (CSUDH CS Graduate Students)

News:

  • Attended 2024 MSI Grants PI Meeting and gave a talk.
  • Congratulations to Giovanni, who will pursue his Ph.D. degree at UCR Computer Science Department.
  • Congratulations to Grace, who will pursue her M.A. degree in public policy at Georgetown University.
  • Congratulations to Justin, who will pursue his graduate MBA degree at UCI School of Business.
  • Congratulations to Justin, who are one of the First Place Winners at 36th Annual CSULB Student Research Competition! His research presentation is titled "Application of Economic Game Theory and Nash-Q Reinforcement Learning in Studying Data Preservation Sensor Nodes".
  • Congratulations to Grace, who gave a research presentation titled "A Correlated Equilibrium Q-Learning for Data Preservation in Base Station-less Sensor Network" at 98th Annual Western Economic Association International (WEAI)!

Activity Schedules:

Publications:

  • Budget-Constrained Traveling Salesman Problem: a Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Approach
    King To Vincent Mak, Christopher Gonzalez, Zari Justine Magnaye, Jessica Gonzalez, Yutian Chen, Bin Tang
    Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Sensing, Communication, and Networking (SECON'24).
  • Revisiting Data Collection in Robotic Sensor Networks: A Budget-Constrained Traveling Salesman Perspective [pdf]
    Soham Patil, Yutian Chen, and Bin Tang
    Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS 2024).
  • A Truthful and Efficient Auction Mechanism for Data Preservation in Base Station-less Sensor Networks [pdf]
    Ryan Steubs, Yutian Chen, and Bin Tang
    Submitted.
  • Truthful and Optimal Data Preservation in Base Station-less Sensor Networks: An Integrated Game Theory and Network Flow Approach [pdf]
    Yuning Yu, Shangli Hsu, Andre Chen, Yutian Chen, Bin Tang
    ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, Volume 20, Issue 1, No. 5, pp 1-40, 2023
  • On the Performance of Nash Equilibria for Data Preservation in Base Station-less Sensor Networks [pdf]
    Giovanni Rivera, Yutian Chen, and Bin Tang
    Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS 2023).
  • Data-VCG: A Data Preservation Game for Base Station-less Sensor Networks with Performance Guarantee [pdf]
    Jennifer Ly,Yutian Chen, and Bin Tang
    Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Time-Sensitive and Deterministic Networking (TENSOR), IFIP Networking 2023.
  • Nash Equilibria of Data Preservation in Base Station-less Sensor Networks [pdf]
    Giovanni Rivera, Yutian Chen, and Bin Tang
    Proceedings of the Third Computer Science Conference for CSU Undergraduates (CSCSU 2023).
  • Voluntary Data Preservation Mechanism in Base Station-less Sensor Networks [pdf]
    Yutian Chen, Jennifer Ly, Bin Tang
    Proceedings of the 12th EAI International Conference on Game Theory for Networks (GameNets 2022).
  • Service Function Chain Placement in Cloud Data Center Networks: a Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Approach [pdf]
    Lynn Gao, Yutian Chen, Bin Tang
    Proceedings of the 11th EAI International Conference on Game Theory for Networks (GameNets 2021).
  • Data Preservation in Base Station-less Sensor Networks: A Game Theoretic Approach [pdf]
    Yutian Chen and Bin Tang
    Proceedings of the 6th EAI International Conference on Game Theory for Networks (GameNets 2016).

Related Papers and Documents:

Game Theory and Multi-agent Reinformce Learning

Base Station-less Sensor Networks

Network Games

Related Websites:

For Students: