Home

I was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Policy Studies (with a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science) at Hanyang University (Seoul, Republic of Korea). In 2024-2025 I will be at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University as the inaugural CASBS-KFAS Fellow. I will start my new position at the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University in August 2025.

I completed my Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Michigan. Before joining Hanyang University, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Mannheim (Germany), 2016-2020. 

My research broadly seeks to understand the microfoundations of political institutions and policy-making processes at the domestic and international levels. In particular, by integrating theoretical frameworks of comparative political institutions at the macro level with behavioral theories at the micro level, I study how the specific design of political institutions and policy-making context shape political actors’ incentives and motivations, and thereby influence party politics, dispute settlement, and institutional legitimacy. For this purpose, I scrutinize the behavioral assumptions underlying the existing literature on political institutions and political economy. I employ a multiple-method approach for empirical evaluation of my theories, drawing on advanced statistical analysis and randomized experiments as well as content analysis and case study methods.

The research takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying how political, economic, and psychological factors interact and seeks to bridge gaps between behavioral theories and institutional theories, between political economy and political psychology, and between American/comparative politics and international relations. 

I received a B.A. with Highest Distinction (summa cum laude) from Seoul National University (Republic of Korea).