Seongmoon Cho

About Me

Welcome. I am a Ph.D. candidate in Urban Planning and Development at the Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California, and a Graduate Researcher at the USC PopDynamics Group. I am a 2024-2025 Haynes-Lindley Doctoral Dissertation Fellow at the John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation. I also hold a Master of Planning from USC. 

I study aggregate household behavior in metropolitan housing markets as a result of dysfunctional housing systems, especially as far as residential mobility decline, intergenerational co-residence, millennials' and boomers' housing choices, and overcrowding. Across the disciplinary divides, my research explores how policy can correct market failures in the supply of affordable housing while driving neighborhood change. In my study, I explore quantitative evidence of housing and demographic issues by linking demographic data with a new source of data. My research has been published in Housing Studies.

My dissertation diagnoses the extent of housing shortages in the U.S. by developing alternative metrics of shortage and examines the implications of historical built environments, such as street and parcel layouts, on the contemporary housing crisis. Other projects I participated in include developing an algorithm to reduce street networks to explore the commuting patterns within the continental U.S., mapping the urbanization in a developing world, and conducting hotspot analysis to detect commercial ethnic enclaves in Los Angeles County. 

Before coming to USC, I was an Asan Young fellow at Asan Institute for Policy Studies. I earned a Master of City and Regional Planning from Seoul National University and a Bachelor of Architecture from Yonsei University. 



[Email] seongmoc[at]usc[dot]edu

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