Research
Journal Publications
(Article Published in Canadian Journal of Economics) with Seik Kim
Abstract: This paper investigates whether evaluation outcomes are influenced by private information and subjective biases when appraisers and appraisees are socially connected. In the Korean Basketball League, school ties between referees and players are commonplace because a large proportion of referees were previously basketball players. Using data from six basketball seasons, we analyze the degree to which referees’ decisions are affected when players and referees attended the same school. Our results suggest that players who play under referees with school ties are called for fewer fouls. We also find that the results are mainly driven by high school ties.
(Article Published in Pacific Economic Review)
Abstract: This paper examines how sales of local small businesses can be promoted through COVID-19 stimulus payments. In the beginning of April, 2020, The Gyeonggi provincial government in Korea implemented a stimulus payment program worth up to 500 thousand Korean Won (416 US dollars) per person to encourage local consumption. By exploiting unique features of the stimulus payments that restricted the use of the payments in the municipality of residence at establishments accepting the Gyeonggi local currency, the paper identifies the treatment effect of the stimulus payments, taking a difference-in-difference-in-differences approach. The results suggest that the stimulus payments led to significant increases in card spending in establishments accepting local currency, relative to other establishments. The estimated overall spending effect of 4.1% persisted over three weeks, and the effects are heterogeneous across sectors. While the estimated spending effect of the stimulus payments is larger among sectors such as groceries, furniture, and beauty, sectors such as restaurants, leisure, and travel that experienced substantial sales losses did not gain much from the stimulus payments. This suggests that targeting sectors the most severely affected can be a more effective policy measure in terms of alleviating the gaps in COVID-19 induced economic losses across sectors.
(Article Published in Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy) with Raul Ramos
Abstract: Korea’s labor market is highly dualized. Non-regular workers are subject to adverse labor conditions, and unions, controlled by regular workers, usually restrict their entry as allowed by Korean regulations. Our objective is to analyze the union wage gap in Korea considering this institutional setting. In particular, we examine union wage effects using a more recent and richer dataset than previous studies, the Economically Active Population Survey (EAPS) data, that enables us to distinguish union members from voluntary non-members, involuntary non-members, and workers in firms without unions. Our empirical analysis compares the wages of union members to those of different categories of non-unionized workers not only in the mean but also along the wage distribution using quantile regressions. Our results show that voluntary non-members experience a marginal wage penalty while for involuntary non-members it is much higher, a difference that could be reduced by removing regulations limiting non-regular workers from joining unions.
(Article Published in International Journal of Manpower)
Abstract: This paper examines whether and how labor market duality can be alleviated through legislation that prohibits discrimination based on employment type. In 2007, the Korean government undertook a labor reform banning discriminatory treatment against fixed-term, part-time, and dispatched workers. By exploiting a gradual implementation of the anti-discrimination law by firm size targeting a subset of non-regular workers, I identify the treatment effects of the anti-discrimination law, applying a difference-in-difference-in-differences approach to the 2007-2010 waves of the Economically Active Population Survey. The results suggest that the anti-discrimination law leads to significant increases in hourly wages and the probabilities of being covered by national pension, health insurance, and employment insurance for targeted non-regular workers in small firms, relative to other workers. Anticipatory behaviors of employers and selective transitions of employees do not seem to underlie the estimated effects, leaving the anti-discrimination law as a likely cause. The presence of labor unions contributes to reducing gaps in labor conditions between regular and targeted non-regular workers.
(Article Published in International Journal of Educational Development) with Alvaro Choi
Abstract: The proliferation of private tutoring is a widespread phenomenon, Korea being one of the most notable examples. Indeed, successive Korean governments have attempted to limit private tutoring consumption for more than four decades. In 2006, state education authorities imposed a restriction on operating hours of hagwon (private tutoring academies) in an attempt at reducing the economic and time resources spent on private tutoring. Since then, some provincial authorities have modified the curfew on hagwon. We take advantage of these policy shifts to identify average treatment effects taking a difference-in-differences approach. Our findings suggest that enforcing the curfew did not generate a significant reduction in the hours and resources spent on private tutoring, our results being heterogeneous by school level and socioeconomic status. Demand for private tutoring seems to be especially inelastic for high school students, who increased their consumption of alternative forms of private tutoring. As the consumption of private tutoring is positively correlated with academic performance and socioeconomic status, strengthening the curfew may have a negative effect on the equality of educational opportunities.
(Book Review Published in The European Journal of Development Research)
Working Papers
(Under review) with Sungjin Yun
Abstract: This paper investigates the use of side payments to circumvent rent control policies, focusing on Korea's Housing Lease Protection Act amendment in 2020. Employing a difference-in-differences-in-differences approach with data from the 2019-2022 waves of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey, this study finds a substantial increase in maintenance fees for non-apartment tenants following the policy change, indicating landlords' exploitation of regulatory gaps. Our findings highlight that individuals facing higher maintenance fees are typically female, aged 30, aged 70 or older, and lacking a college degree. This suggests that landlords charging elevated maintenance fees compared to actual costs tend to target individuals perceived as having weaker negotiating power, thus capitalizing on potential vulnerabilities.
(Work in Progress)
Abstract: College students decide to take leaves of absence during their studies for various reasons; however, the economic consequences of such decisions have not been rigorously studied. This paper estimates the impact of the duration of a leave of absence from college on labor market outcomes. To address the endogeneity of the duration of a leave of absence, I exploit a suddenly implemented two-month reduction in the duration of mandatory military service in Korea. The reduction in the duration of mandatory military service, announced in March 2003, allowed some students serving in the military at that time—those who started their military service in January, February, July, or August—to significantly reduce the length of their leave of absence from college, while the reduction was marginal for the others. The treatment intensity was determined both by start year and start month of military service. After controlling for start year and start month fixed effects, interactions of the fixed effects are plausibly exogenous and are used as instruments in the wage (and other labor market outcomes) equation.