Guest Lecturer: Dr. Ken Inosaki (Ph.D. in Economics, the University of Washington)

In the Econometrics and Management course (instructor: Taiju Kitano), Dr. Ken Inosaki (Ph.D. in Economics, the University of Washington), a Data Scientist at CyberAgent's AI Business Division, was invited to deliver a guest lecture titled “Price Optimization Using Econometrics.”

In his talk, Dr. Inosaki introduced the current state of the retail industry, recent advances in digital transformation (DX), and how econometric techniques can be applied to optimize product-level pricing—drawing on actual consulting cases from the retail sector. Starting from fundamental distinctions between causality and correlation, he provided a detailed explanation covering the selection of instrumental variables necessary for estimating demand functions, and further, the derivation of optimal prices that maximize gross profit using price elasticities estimated through instrumental variable methods. Additionally, the lecture introduced an overview of optimal pricing by regions based on the estimation results from the actual consulting case.

The session concluded with a lively Q&A, providing students with a valuable opportunity to deepen their understanding of the practical relevance and effectiveness of econometrics in real-world business decision-making.