I am an assistant professor of Economics at the School of Digital Humanities and Computational Social Sciences at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology . I have been at KAIST since the fall of 2023. I hold a joint position at the KAIST Graduate School of Data Science and KAIST AI & Futures Studies.

My research interests include:

Fertility, labor market, and the family
Technology (AI) and society
Poverty, inequality, and human development.

I employ following methods:

Statistical causal inference
Agent-based modeling
Causal machine learning.

My research takes an interdisciplinary approach. I have publications in economics, psychology, and marketing, among others.

Student advising:

I accept MA and PhD graduate students through DHCSS, GSDS, and FX. In addition to academic advising, I aim to guide each student towards one or more academic publications before graduation.

I offer research internship opportunities to undergraduate students anywhere in the world. Research experience and publication opportunities are available. I can provide recommendation letters based on the interactions.

I have ongoing projects in all areas of my research interests--inquire by email.

Email: kimjunhyung at kaist dot ac dot kr

Curriculum Vitae: Download here.

Other Affiliations:

Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group (ECI). Member, 2019-present.

Global Labor Organization. Fellow, 2021-present.

Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). Research affiliate, 2022-present.

Past affiliations:

Assistant professor of Economics at Institute for Economic and Social Research at Jinan University, 2019--2023

Research Associate at the Center for the Economics of Human Development at The University of Chicago.

Education:

Ph.D. in Economics at The University of Chicago, 2019.

Advisor: James J. Heckman

B.A. in Economics at University of California at Berkeley, 2009.

See my Students here.

See my Research here.

See my Teaching experience here.

국가연구자번호 (KRI): 12597960

저는 카이스트 디지털인문사회과학부에서 경제학 조교수로 2023년 가을학기부터 일하고 있습니다. 카이스트 데이터사이언스대학원과 카이스트 AI미래학과에서 겸직을 맡고 있습니다.

경제학과 계산사회과학의 방법론을 동원하여 가정 내에 있는 가난과 불평등의 뿌리를 이해하고자 합니다. 관심있는 주제로는 (1) 저출생, 양육, 일.가정 양립, (2) 인공지능과 사회, (3) 빈곤, 양극화, 교육 등이 있습니다.

학부생 연구인턴, 석사학생, 박사학생을 모집합니다. 이메일로 문의 주세요.

카이스트에 오기 전에는 중국 광저우에 있는 Jinan University Institute for Economic and Social Research에서 경제학 조교수로 2019년부터 2023년까지 부임하였으며 교육, 빈곤 등의 문제에 관한 연구를 수행하였습니다.

시카고대학에서 제임스 헤크만 교수님 지도로 경제학 박사학위를 받았으며 캘리포니아대학 버클리캠퍼스에서 경제학 학사학위를 받았습니다.

한글 이력서 내려받기.

2025년 4월부터 주간조선에 글을 싣고 있습니다.

Students 학생

I am serving as the advisor for the following students at KAIST.

Sofya Feygenson Фейгенсон Софья (DHCSS)

Sofya is an M.S. student in computational social science. She earned her B.A. in Economics with a minor in Artificial Intelligence (AI융합심화전공 프로그램). Her research interests lie in labor economics, applied microeconomics, and machine learning. She focuses on analyzing how technological change—such as automation and AI—affects labor market outcomes, using empirical methods and modeling techniques from applied microeconomics. Her goal is to understand and quantify the broader social and economic implications of these changes through data-driven research.

Tongxin Zhang 张彤馨 (DHCSS)

Tongxin is an M.S. student in computational social science. She earned her B.A. in sociology from Harbin Institute of Technology. Currently she is interested in using natural language processing and machine learning to study social inequality and plans to incorporate advanced data processing techniques in her future research.

Komila Shernazarova (GSDS)

Mihak Jung정미학 (DHCSS)

Hawi Tolera (DHCSS)

Georgina Teng Chew Yan (GSDS)

Research 연구

Publications in English 영어 논문

2018.10. Parent-child interaction and Child Outcomes: Evidence from a Randomized Intervention, with Wolfgang Schulz, Tanja Zimmermann and Kurt Hahlweg. Labour Economics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2018.08.003

Highlight: Randomized parenting intervention that improves parents' discipline strategies (parenting style) for their children in early childhood improves the children's behavioral outcomes in early adolescence. Parenting styles (harsh discipline, positive discipline) have causal effects on child outcomes.

2021.08. Early childhood parenting and adolescent bullying behavior: Evidence from a randomized intervention at ten-year follow-up, with Kurt Hahlweg and Wolfgang Schulz. Social Science & Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114114. Slides

Highlight: Randomized parenting intervention that improves parents' discipline strategies (parenting style) for their children in early childhood makes the children less likely to bully their peers in early adolescence. Bullying seems distinct from other problematic behaviors.

2022.02. Home-Tutoring Services Assisted with Technology: Investigating the Role of Artificial Intelligence Using a Randomized Field Experiment, with Minki Kim, Do Won Kwak and Sol Lee. Journal of Marketing Research. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00222437211050351

Highlight: AI-based assistance to tutors (service providers), providing them with analyses and guidance on tutoring their students, improves students' outcomes (service outcomes). Not all tutor adopt the assistance technology, and those who eagerly adopt do not always benefit more.

2022.05. Parental factors and children’s screen time during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea, with Won Kay Kim and Yu Kyung Koh. Child Psychiatry & Human Development. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-022-01366-z

Highlight: Children's screen time during the COVID-19 pandemic is positively associated with parents' depression, parents' lack of self-care, family conflict, and parents' fear of the pandemic. Whereas previous literature primarily focused on the effects of parenting behavior, we find important roles played by complex family factors in determining children's screen time.

2023.02. Impacts of the COVID-19 Crisis on Single-Person Households in South Korea, with Haeil Jung and Gihyeon Hong. Journal of Asian Economics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asieco.2022.101557

Highlight: Consumption of single-person households, especially in 50--65 age group and in spending related to formal and informal insurance mechanisms, was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Single-person household is highlighted as a growing demographic group that is particularly vulnerable to economic shocks because of their limited access to informal insurance.

2023.03. Mental Health Consequences of Working from Home during the Pandemic, with Yu Kyung Koh and Jinseong Park. Global Economic Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/1226508X.2023.2181845

Highlight: Workers working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic were more likely to experience loneliness, lethargy, and sadness, especially if they were also responsible for housework, but not if they lived with children. We suggest work-family facilitation as a potential explanation.

2023.06. Birth order effects and parenting behaviors, with Shaoda Wang. China Economic Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2023.101950

Covered in a blog Camphor Economist Cycle" (香樟经济学术圈)

Highlights:

We find negative birth order effects among children in contemporary China.
Effects are on academic achievement, parental supervision, and harsh punishment.
Parenting behaviors are important in explaining the effects.
Home environment in China may have evolved from those of previous generation.

2024.07. Medical Marijuana Legalization and Parenting Behaviors: An Analysis of the Time Use of Parents, with Cynthia Bansak. Journal of Applied Econometrics. https://doi.org/10.1002/jae.3084.

Media coverage: Marijuana Moment

Highlight: We show that parents in the US spend more time taking care of their children when they have legal access to medical marijuana. We provide suggestive evidence that the parents who benefited used marijuana for medical purposes as intended rather than engaging in marijuana abuse.

2024.11. Association between COVID-19 Risk Perception and Economic Expectation during the Pandemic in South Korea, with Won Mo Jang, Jong Jae Lee, Duk Hyeon Jang, and Jin Hwan Kim. Sage Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241293586

Abstract: Risk perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic changed economic expectations and shaped individuals’ consumption and investment choices, thereby worsening its economic and social damage. This study investigated the associations between COVID-19 risk perceptions and economic expectations using a South Korean dataset collected during the pandemic. The results of a logistic regression conducted on 1,001 participants revealed that greater pandemic risk perceptions were significantly associated with negative economic expectations at both the national and the household levels. Affective risk perception had a large and significant negative association with all four types of economic expectations, whereas cognitive risk perception had a significant negative association only with households’ economic expectations. The association was greater for the perception that the economy would “get better” than for “get worse” or “remain the same,” indicating COVID-19 may have reduced individuals’ optimistic economic expectations. COVID-19’s economic damage may last beyond the pandemic, as individuals adjust their economic expectations.

2025.06. Effects of Temperature Exposures on Early Childhood Cognitive Development and Home Environment, with Wenjie Wu, Zhe Yang, and Ai Yue. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103162

Highlight: Exposure to ambient cold temperature during the first year after birth has negative effects on children's cognitive development observed at ages 3--5 (but not before). Caregivers do not mitigate these impacts but channel/amplify it instead by decreasing caregiver-child interactions and material investments into home environment.

2026.04. Effects of Childhood Peers on Personality Traits, with Shuaizhang Feng and Zhe Yang. Journal of Labor Economics. https://doi.org/10.1086/732770

Highlight: Children acquire the behavioral traits of their friends (among classmates) as measured by personality traits.

Publications in Korean 한글 논문

2021.09. 가정환경, 학교환경, 학생행동요소가 학업 성취에 미치는 영향: 요소간 보완성과 대체성을 중심으로. 노동경제논집. Effect of Home Environment, School Environment, and Student Behavior on Academic Achievement. Korean Journal of Labor Economics. September 2021. KCI link. Online Appendix. Download.

Highlight: CES skill production function is estimated using panel data following students through middle and high school, finding greater elasticity of substitution for the earlier period. For under-achieving students, own effort dominates household income and school quality as the key input.

Book Chapters 책

2023. "Review and Case Study: Improving early childhood parenting as a strategy to reduce adolescent bullying." Book chapter for The Handbook of Anger, Aggression, and Violence: Causes, Pathology and Treatments (Springer Nature). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98711-4_158-1

Abstract: Bullying starts in early childhood, and parents play an important role in shaping problematic behaviors of children. Improving parenting in early childhood, therefore, may be an effective strategy to reduce children’s bullying aggression in the long term. Few bullying prevention programs target the early childhood period, however. This chapter presents the effects of Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) on children’s bullying aggression at 10-year follow-up. Parents of young children received education and training on children’s development, positive parenting, and discipline strategies in a randomized, universal, group-based parent training intervention. Unlike earlier studies that showed that parenting intervention could reduce early childhood bullying, the current study examined bullying aggression during adolescence, when children were 10–14 years old. The results show lower levels of physical bullying reported by children, primarily boys, whose parents received Triple P training. Verbal bullying and victimization were unaffected. These findings suggest that early childhood parenting intervention can reduce adolescent bullying aggression.

Working Papers 논문 초안

Do Long Working Hours of Men Affect Women's Labor Force Participation? Evidence from Korea with with Bun Song Lee and Hoolda Kim. RnR at Population Research and Policy Review

Unintended Consequences of Family Planning Policies on the Breastfeeding Gap Between Sons and Daughters, with Minhee Chae, Yong Cai, and William Lavely. IZA DP No. 16190.

An effective Chinese family planning policy called "Later, Longer, and Fewer" widened gender gap in breastfeeding duration. Parents affected by the policy engaged in son-biased fertility stopping, skewing the gender ratio among the last-born in the family who receive longer breastfeeding than the earlier-born children regardless of gender.

Misery and Prosociality: the Long-run Impact of Early-life Adversity on Prosocial Behavior in China’s 1959-1961 Great Famine, with Shaoda Wang, Junsen Zhang, and Kang Zhou.

Highlight:

A House for My Family: The Impacts of Down Payment Rate on Marriage and Fertility, with Yuting Bai, Anqi Li, Shiko Maruyama, and Zhe Yang. RIETI Discussion Paper.

Parenting During the Pandemic: An Analysis of the Time Use of Parents as K-12 Schools Reopened in the United States, with Yue Bao and Cynthia Bansak

Highlight: School reopening in the fall of 2020 in the US had heterogeneous impacts on the time allocation of parents, widening the existing socioeconomic gap among households. Hybrid or in-person reopening was disruptive to all households while online reopening was disruptive only to low-SES households.

Who Benefits from Single-Sex Schooling? Evidence on Mental Health, Peer Relationships, and Academic Achievement, with Do Won Kwak and Dain Jung. IZA DP No. 17330

Highlight: Single-sex schooling can improve students' outcomes only if the students do not face intense competitive pressure for academic performance. Because of this, single-sex schooling effects may be negative for some female students even though the effects are positive on average.

The Inheritance of Historical Trauma: Intergenerational Effects of Early-Life Exposure to Famine on Mental Health , with Zihan Zhang. IZA DP No. 16385. IZA World of Labor Opinions Post.

Highlight: Parents' exposure to the Great Famine of China in childhood negative impacts the adult mental health of their children. The effects are concentrated in exposures during ages 0--2 and 3--7, the first two stages of Jean Piaget's cognitive development model.

Works in Progress 진행중인 연구

Prosocial Vaccination, with Bakhtawar Ali, Syngjoo Choi, and Avner Seror. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8035-1.0. Download.

Highlight: We show that people are strongly motivated by loss aversion in prosocial motives in the context of vaccination decisions, as measured by both intentions to vaccinate and vaccine take-up. We calibrate prosocial loss aversion parameter to be around 2.

Marriage or Cohabitation? The Role of Gender Wage Gap, with Shiko Maruyama and Zhe Yang.

The Economics of Parenting Skill and Child Development, (undergoing revision) with Jong Jae Lee and Ji-Liang Shiu. Download.

Highlight: Parents' choice of discipline (parenting style; positive vs. harsh discipline) is driven by their ability to communicate their message to their children through discipline (parenting skill). Positive discipline is more consistent, easier for children to understand, but more difficult for parents to implement. Parenting skill is found to be an important determinant of achievement gap of children across household SES.

Data-driven classification of tasks in the South Korean labo rmarket using the description of tasks within occupations

Modeling temporary labor migration decisions of parents in rural Thailand

Teaching 강의

KAIST

Class registration: I will not be able to admit all students who try to register beyond the limit.
I will do a survey during the first class about this. Students trying to register to the class but not registered yet should attend the first class.

Since 2024,

Spring: Theory and Practice of Statistics for the Humanities and Social Sciences (Graduate)

Fall: Introductory Statistics for Research in Humanities and Social Sciences (Undergraduate)

Fall: An Economic Approach to Understanding whether Korea will Exist in the Next Generation (Undergraduate)

Fall 2023, Econometrics for Causal Analysis

Fall 2023, Microeconomics and Price Theory

Jinan University IESR

Spring 2023, English Writing, Jinan University IESR

Fall 2022, Labor Economics Seminar, Jinan University IESR

Fall 2021, Labor Economics Seminar, Jinan University IESR

Fall 2020, Labor Economics Seminar, Jinan University IESR

Department of Economics at The University of Chicago