political economy, voting behavior, electoral accountability
I am an associate professor specializing in Comparative Politics within the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Chung-Ang University, Seoul South Korea. My research is primarily centered around democratic accountability mechanisms, with a particular emphasis on their functioning during elections within both liberal and illiberal democracies. More specifically, my research investigates the capacity of citizens to constrain their representatives based on their policy performance, both domestically and internationally.
Before I joined Chung-Ang in 2025, I served as an assistant professor in Comparative Politics in the Department of Political Science and IR at Soongsil University, Seoul. Prior to that, I was an assistant professor in Comparative Politics/Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. Before that, I was a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) in the United States.
I received my PhD in Political Science from the University of Missouri in the US, following a master's degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a master's degree in International Economics from the Berlin School of Economics and Law.
Publications
Peer Reviewed (SSCI)
[Forthcoming] "When do Agents deliver the Vote? A Vote-Popularity Function in Electoral Manipulations" Democratization (with Youngho Cho) [pdf]
[2024] "Benchmarking the Pandemic: How do citizens react to domestic COVID-19 conditions compared to other countries" Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 34(2): 191-211. (with Jungsub Shin) [pdf] [with appendix]
[2023] "How does Economic Openness affect the Relative Economic Voting?" European Political Science Review, 15(4): 561-581 [pdf] [supplementary][replication]
[2023] "How does a Relative Economy affect Voter Turnout?" Political Behavior, 45(3): 855-875. [pdf] [supplementary][replication]
[2022] "Armed and Dangerous: Legacies of Incumbent-Military Ties and Electoral Violence in Africa" Electoral Studies, 80 (102531) (with Nikolaos Frantzeskakis) [pdf] [appendix][replication]
[2020] "Should We Talk about the Weather? How Party Competition and Coalition Participation Influence Parties’ Attention to Economic Issues” Party Politics, 26(6): 730-743. (with Ed Goldring and Laron K. Williams) [pdf] [replication]
[2019] "Compared to What? Media-guided Reference Points & Relative Economic Voting” Electoral Studies, 62(102085). [pdf] [supplementary] [replication]
[2019] "How do Sanctions Affect Incumbent Electoral Performance?” Political Research Quarterly, 72(3): 744-759. [pdf] [supplementary] [replication]
[2019] "Who is Responsible? The Effect of Clarity of Responsibility on the Voter Turnout?” West European Politics, 42(3): 464-494. (with Nikolaos Frantzeskakis and Jungsub Shin) [pdf] [replication]
[2019] "Do the Welfare Benefits Weaken the Economic Vote? A Cross-National Analysis of the Welfare State and Economic Voting” International Political Science Review, 40(1): 108-125. (with Jungsub Shin) [pdf]
Chapter in Edited Volume
[2023] "Economics, Politics, and Popularity Function: Past, Present and Future", Economics and Politics Revisited: Executive Approval and the New Calculus of Support, Eds. Timothy Hellwig and Matthew M Singer, Oxford University Press. (with Mary Stegmaier and Michael Lewis-Beck)
[2017] "The VP-Function: A Review”, The SAGE Handbook of Electoral Behaviour, 2v. Eds. Kai Arzheimer, Jocelyn Evans and Michael S. Lewis-Beck. Sage Publications. (with Michael S. Lewis-Beck and Mary Stegmaier) [pdf]
Peer Reviewed (Korean Journal)
[2021] "The Effects of Voters' Relative Evaluations of Government Response to COVID19 on Government Trust, Satisfaction of Democracy, and National Pride in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan” Korean Party Studies Review, 20(52): 132-165. (with Jungsub Shin) (in Korean) [pdf]
[2019] "Electoral Competitiveness and Perceived Election Quality: Unraveling the Mediational Role of District level Turnout in the 2016 Korean Legislative Election” Journal of Future Politics, 9(2): 31-61. (with Youngho Cho) [pdf]
In Progress
"The relative economy and trust in government and approval rate: The moderating role of clarity of responsibility " (invited to revise and resubmit to Political Science) (with Junho Jo and Hongjun Yoo)
"Anxiety vs. crisis management: Analyzing political support during COVID19 in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan" (revised and resubmitted to International Journal of Public Opinion Research) (with Jungsub Shin)
"The economy and satisfaction with democracy: The moderating role of clarity of responsibility" (with Mary Stegmaier) (under review)
"Who supports for the Martial Law in Democracy: Evidence from South Korea" (with InKwan Chung) (under review)
"A relative economy in a Popularity Function from the US, the UK, Germany, France and Italy" (in progress)
"Keeping up with Jones: Satisfaction with democracy and a relative economy: An aggregate and individual-level analysis (in progress)
"The economy as the Most Important Problem: How does economic issue salience affect the economic voting?" (with Jaehyun Song) (in progress)