Date/Time
Date(s) - 14/10/2026
11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Sungwan Hong, Assistant Professor from the University of Pittsburgh, will present to our economics graduate students and faculty on Wednesday, October 14, 2026 at 11:30am (EST) in KTH 334.

Sungwan Hong is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh. His research lies at the intersection of international trade, macro-spatial models, and environmental and energy economics. His recent work examines how trade and environmental policies affect global welfare, the energy transition, and regional disparities. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Penn State University in 2025.

Sungwan will present the paper, “Strategic Multinational Location Choice” (joint with Hyungjin Kim)

Abstract

We study strategic multinational location choice with endogenous pricing when a location’s net return can switch from negative to positive and back as the network expands. We derive profit bounds that keep market benefits and location costs tied to the same portfolio, allowing globally optimal best responses without imposing complementarity or single-crossing restrictions. We apply the framework to a calibrated model of eight cloud providers across 42 countries, examining EU sourcing requirements and offshore delivery costs in China. Competitor responses substantially moderate worldwide network contraction while leaving price effects in directly affected markets nearly unchanged. In China, higher offshore delivery costs increase Chinese providers’ mainland core presence but reduce their worldwide networks and operating profits. EU-wide sourcing requirements increase EU core presence, whereas national requirements reduce it.

View Sungwan’s professional website.