David Tang is a postdoctoral researcher at Flinders University in the Water, Environment and Food Economics Policy Group (WEF), College of Business, Government and Law (BGL), since July 2024. His primary research focuses on Australian water studies, with broader interests in technology applications and behavioural market and consumer studies. In 2023, David completed a project with the South Australian Department for Energy and Mining, optimising locations for renewable energy recharge stations.

David’s PhD (2019-2023) focused on online market consumer behavior through spatial data, big data, and machine learning, with case studies on Daigou, e-commerce platforms, and the NFT market. He also contributed to research in agricultural economics and public policy during this time.

From 2022 to 2023, David advanced his expertise in AI applications, particularly in systematic literature reviews (SLR), which he presented to researchers and students across Australian universities. His 2021-2022 work involved analysing price formation in online infant formula markets using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and studying the bargaining power in the NFT crypto market using Ethereum blockchain data.

Earlier, from 2017 to 2021, David researched the Daigou phenomenon, an informal cross-border e-commerce practice, and supported various research projects on Australian mango businesses, water policy, and Chinese food surveys from 2018 to 2023.

• Water economics
• Bargaining power
• Data analytics
• Big data
• Machine learning application
• Market study
• Consumer behaviour

David has published in areas such as consumer and market study, e-commerce price formation including role of user-generated comments, parallel trade of Australian products to China, opportunities for marketing fresh produce online in retail platforms, bargaining power in non-fungible token market, agricultural production research, and Australia Covid-19 consumer research. 

He has expertise in methodologies including econometrics (Stata & R), advanced data manipulation and web crawling (Python), and machine learning algorithms & natural language processing tools. 

David is a member of the newly-formed Water, Environment and Food economics policy group (WEF) in College of Business, Government and Law (BGL) at Flinders University.

The team is comprised of eight distinguished environment and resource economists including award-winning Professor Sarah Wheeler, Professor Neville Crossman, and ARC Future Fellow Professor Alec Zuo, along with two PhD students. Their research aims to enhance the management and allocation of water in the Murray-Darling Basin, evaluate the impacts of water scarcity on regional and farming communities, develop water markets, promote sustainable farming practices, and assess the effects of drought and flooding.

Collaborating with industry and regional stakeholders and led by Professor Wheeler, the team aims to develop policies that tackle Australia's water challenges and the effects of climate change, with a strong commitment to real-world solutions and informing best practices for sustainable water management.

See Flinders News for more information.