Student Loan Debt and Career Trajectories: The Impact on Early Job Choices and Job Switching Among College Graduates

This paper examines how student loan debt affects early-career job selection and mobility among college graduates. I develop a simple three-period model in which borrowing constraints induce indebted graduates to prioritize jobs with front-loaded wage profiles that ease immediate repayment burdens, potentially at the cost of lower lifetime earnings. The model predicts that student debt can distort initial job matching and reduce early-career mobility by increasing the cost of switching into higher-growth jobs. Using panel data from the Korean Education and Employment Panel (KEEP), I present empirical evidence consistent with these predictions: graduates with student loan debt are more likely to enter jobs with relatively high initial wages and flatter subsequent wage growth, and they are less likely to switch jobs during the early career stage. To quantify these mechanisms, I estimate a structural model of job choice with borrowing constraints and wage dynamics using debtor-level data, and conduct counterfactual analysis of repayment requirements. The results show that stricter early repayment obligations reduce transitions into higher-growth jobs and lower lifetime earnings, while more flexible repayment schedules increase job mobility and improve long-run earnings outcomes, highlighting repayment timing as a key channel through which student debt affects early-career labor market outcomes.

Impact of Korea’s Paid Parental Leave Reform on Childbearing Behavior Among Working Women

This paper analyzes the impact of Korea's 2011 reform of the paid parental leave system, which shifted from a lump-sum payment to an income-based benefit, on the childbearing behavior of female workers. Using data from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families and a difference-in-differences approach, I estimate how access to the revised parental leave influences the likelihood of having additional children. The results indicate that the reform increased the probability of subsequent births, especially among women earning 1.25 million Korean Won (KRW) or more per month and those with one existing child. However, these effects are not statistically significant for all income and demographic groups, suggesting heterogeneous policy impacts. Given the Korean government's substantial investment in parental leave, these findings underscore the importance of continuous evaluation and potential policy enhancements to promote equitable outcomes across diverse worker populations.