RESEARCH

1. Hong, Gihoon, Soyoung Kim, Geunhwan Park, and Seung-Gyu Sim. 2019. "Female Education Externality and Inclusive Growth" Sustainability 11 (12): 3344.

2. Kim, Soyoung,  Geunhwan Park, Seung-Gyu Sim, and Gihoon Hong. 2018. “A Study on the Opportunity Costs of Gender Educational Inequality” Journal of Women and Economics (in Korean) 15 (3): 1-20.

“Impact of Landmine Risk on Human Capital Accumulation in a post-conflict country” [PDF available] Job Market Paper

The study investigates the effect of post-conflict efforts on human capital accumulation in Cambodia. A series of armed conflicts causes a prolonged period of slow development in post-conflict countries, which results in limited opportunities to accumulate human capital.  In Cambodia, landmines have been a major obstacle to recovery and development, blocking access to income sources, facilities, and roads. To assess how the removal of this legacy of conflicts shapes the decision on human capital accumulation, the study aims to investigate the demining impact on educational achievement. Combining rich geospatial data and repeated cross-sectional household surveys enables me to use the difference-in-differences approach to handle the staggered adoption of clearance operations. Exploiting alternative semiparametric models to mitigate potential bias arising from the canonical two-way fixed-effect (TWFE) approach, the research findings indicate that the initiation of demining reduces the number of years attending school and the probability of upper secondary graduation by 0.7 years and four percentage points, respectively, while increasing the likelihood of primary school completion by seven percentage points. A commune-level analysis is also used to reduce potential bias from self-selection, which yields robust results with smaller magnitudes. The analysis also considers the heterogeneity in treatment effects by gender and initial landmine risk, finding that the treatment effect does not differ statistically between genders, but that heavily mined areas are associated with a lower likelihood of staying in school for longer. The study suggests that demining increases the opportunity cost of schooling in heavily mined areas. Additionally, the study discusses potential channels, such as the proportion of agricultural lands and forests, and nighttime luminosity, which suggests that an increase in labor demand could explain the underlying mechanisms driving changes in educational investment in response to landmine clearance.

“Infrastructure and Structural Transformation: Evidence from Multi-Generation Tracking Survey in the Philippines” (with Yuki Higuchi, Kei Kajisa, and Yasuyuki Sawada) [Draft Available Upon Request]  Best Paper of ASAE Conference 

The study examines the effect of the place-based policy on schooling and occupational dynamics in the Philippines. Despite the growing interest in place-based policies, their long-term effects on structural transformation have been insufficiently studied, particularly in developing countries. To address this gap, we analyze forty-year-long household tracking survey data, satellite imagery, and public administrative data to investigate the influence of infrastructure development on transforming agrarian communities in the Philippines. Using the difference-in-differences (DiD) framework, we find that increased exposure to newly constructed highways and industrial parks leads to structural transformation by increasing the likelihood of employment in modern sectors and promoting female human capital investments. Our research also highlights the complementary relationship between investments in human capital and the construction of highways and schools. These findings suggest that both the demand and supply sides of labor are crucial for successful modernization through place-based policies. Additionally, we observe an occupational pattern outside the treated area, where the economy experiences service-led growth without undergoing thorough industrialization. This pattern aligns with the hypothesis of premature deindustrialization proposed by Rodrik (2016).

“Dynamic Causal Effect of Demining Efforts on Physical Safety” [Draft Available Upon Request]

The study investigates the influence of demining efforts on landmine incidents in Cambodia. Landmines present a significant risk to the physical and psychological safety of civilians. I evaluate the degree to which alterations in landmine risk correspond to changes in incidents, thereby quantifying their causal relationship. To establish causality between the legacy of conflicts and landmine incidents, I take advantage of the spatial and temporal variations in landmine clearance and detonations. By integrating the TWFE model with the instrumental variable (IV) approach, I can address endogeneity arising from omitted variable bias and relax the canonical assumptions, incorporating dynamic causal pathways between treatment and dependent variables. The empirical results indicate a reduction of 0.08 percentage points in the probability and 0.15 fewer incidents of landmines when one percent of contaminated land is cleared. This suggests that an increased area of cleared land can effectively reduce the risk of physical damage or human loss due to landmine explosions, thereby highlighting the significance of clearance activities for safety. Furthermore, I discuss the cost-effectiveness of landmine removal to ensure civilian safety. The analysis reveals that the average cost of clearing one square meter was USD 1.15 during the study period, and approximately 11,939 m2 of contaminated areas would need to be cleared to prevent one victim from landmine incidents. Based on this estimation, the cost to prevent one victim is approximately USD 13,729. When considering the economic value of demining, the potential income that one casualty could have generated is USD 32,012 if they had not been involved in a landmine accident. Despite the net present value being positive, the internal rate of return (IRR) is estimated at 5 percent, which is lower than the benchmark for assessing economic viability (ADB, 2013). The analysis underscores the importance of adopting alternative or complementary policies to mitigate the risk of landmines in Cambodia from an economic perspective.

“Child Labor and Mother's Labor Market Participation” (with Seung-Gyu Sim) [Draft Available Upon Request] 

This paper analyzes child labor participation decision and how it affects intra-household, especially mother’s, labor market participation through the mother-child relationship in the market work. Using the Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey 2014, the empirical result shows that a higher probability of child labor increases the incidence of mother’s work. However, it also demonstrates that a mother is less likely to get involved in the market work if the eldest child is a son. This suggests the substitutability between a mother and her eldest son in market work, whereas the eldest daughter tends to do domestic work instead of her working mother.

“On the Role of Structural Transformation in Demographic Change” (with Yasuyuki Sawada, Kei Kajisa, and Yuki Higuchi)

This study investigates how improved connectivity to infrastructure affects the demographic change of the population through the transformation of industrial structure. Using forty-year-long dynasty panel data from the Philippines, we find that higher exposure to the newly constructed highway and industrial estates has led to extended longevity of the male heads among the households whose primary occupation transformed from agriculture to manufacturing. This indicates that structural transformation affects not only directly to the younger generations through occupational choice but also indirectly to their parents’ generations presumably through resource transfer or better care by the children’s generations.