Working Papers
-Presented at 2026 ASSA(scheduled), 2025 ASSA, 2025 CAES, 2024 RIT seminar, 2024 SEA, 2024 WEAI, 2024 MEA, 2022 CAAS
-Abstract: This study examines the impact of a policy that limits students to a maximum of six college applications on both school match quality and socioeconomic equity in access to prestigious colleges. I make a theoretical contribution by extending a model of college competition for high-performing applicants who exhibit ability noise to incorporate application constraints that differ by socioeconomic status. This extension allows the framework to generate novel predictions on equity: while the cap reduces match quality by shifting stronger students to second-tier colleges, it simultaneously improves socioeconomic equity, since the constraints primarily bind higher socioeconomic groups. To test these predictions, I construct a novel college-level administrative dataset. The empirical analysis confirms both predictions: match quality declines after the reform, while more students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds enroll in prestigious colleges. These findings highlight the importance of considering socioeconomic heterogeneity in application behavior and provide policy-relevant insights for higher education systems that suffer from the loss of excessive competition.
Work In Progress
Child’s School Starting Age and Maternal Employment
Does Childcare Burden Affect the Parental Labor Supply? During COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea