I am excited to share that my research on how older union workers retire from the labor force is now published in The Gerontologist.

I studied how the union workers' objective and subjective aspects of work lives and retirement patterns changed over time by comparing the older workers in two birth cohorts with 18-year differences.

I found that union workers still benefit from their union coverage despite the reduced union bargaining power, including employer-provided health insurance and pensions. However, their subjective assessments of work lives are worse than those of non-union workers. In addition, the choice of retirement pathways varies by union coverage as well as the birth cohorts. 

I am happy to share that the book chapter I worked on with Professor Phyllis Moen has finally become available in The Oxford Handbook of Retirement (2nd Edition).

In this chapter, we mainly discussed the factors associated with older workers' transitions to complete workforce exit from a life course perspective (+ other theoretical lenses).

We also carefully went through and selected the recent studies that investigated interesting topics related to how older workers retire. If you work on retirement research, this chapter will be helpful to learn more about various disciplinary approaches to examine how older workers retire.

I am happy to share that my research on older workers' attainment of occupational licenses was just published in The Gerontologist.

This study investigated (1) the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of older workers newly attaining occupational licenses in later work lives and (2) their choice of retirement pathways after attaining occupational licenses. 

I am extremely thrilled to share that my research with my long-time mentor, Professor Morris Kleiner, was featured in the NBER The Digest this month. As a postdoc and a job market candidate, it is promising to see that scholars are interested in my research.

In this study, we evaluated how adopting universal reciprocity of physician licenses optimizes regional labor supply of physicians and thereby improves access to healthcare. Both our theoretical and empirical evidence show that this universal reciprocity increases the out-of-state practices, particularly among the physicians in the states that have not adopted the interstate reciprocity. We also show that this policy change increases the healthcare access and reduces the medical cost burden. 

I am happy to serve as the chair of the paper session, New Horizons for Older Workers, at the Gerontological Society of America 2025 conference in Boston, MA. There are five amazing and innovative research projects ready to be presented, including my research with my PhD mentor, Professor Phyllis Moen. For those who will be in the GSA this year, please check your schedule on November 12th, Wednesday, from 8 AM to 9:30 AM, at Hynes - Room 310 and join our paper presentation session.

The CATO Institute featured my recent research on occupational licensing to their research brief series. In this research, I worked with my long time mentor Dr. Morris M. Kleiner, to examine the impact of adopting universal licensing reciprocity (ULR) on the regional labor supply of physicians and consumer's access to healthcare services. We find that adopting ULR increased the regional labor supply of physicians through out-of-state practices and increased the access to healthcare services. Check this research brief for more information.

My recent research on occupational licensing is finally available to public as an NBER working paper.

I worked with my long-time mentor Dr. Morris Kleiner on how the relaxation of regulatory barriers on licensing policy (adoption of universal reciprocity of occupational licenses) changes the labor supply and consumer welfare. We provided simple theoretical models explaining how this relaxation changes the labor supply and consequently improves healthcare utilization. We also provided empirical results that are consistent with our theoretical predictions, showing the increase in out-of-state practices of physicians and increase in healthcare utilization. 

I gave a talk on one of my ongoing research at Sanford Center for Aging. This research on how various work-to-retirement trajectories affect the cognitive outcomes in later life. It was a great time to share my research and receive productive feedback to improve this research.

The last chapter of my dissertation that investigated the role of occupational licensing on the choice of retirement pathways of older workers in the US was finally published at Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society.

I closely worked with my long-time mentor Dr. Morris Kleiner to complete this work, and I am happy to share this work with you all. I also want to say thanks to all of those who gave helpful comments and suggestions to make this work published. 

Suggested Citation: 

Oh, Yun taek, and Morris M. Kleiner. 2025. “The Influence of Occupational Licensing on Workforce Transitions to Retirement.” Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, ahead of print, February 3. 

I am happy to share that I was selected as one of the ten poster finalists for the GSA 2024 Social Research, Policy, and Practice group.

My research in this poster examined how older workers' self-identification of their retirement status during their later phase of work lives (Age 60-70) influences their cognitive health after retirement.

For those attending the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) 2024 Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA, join our presentation session "Economics and Aging." We have five wonderful presentations by scholars around the world.

I serve as the chair of the session and present my research on how the historical shifts in labor unions changed the work-life quality, retirement plans, and the choice of retirement pathways.

I am happy to share my new research published in the Journals of Gerontology: Series B - Social Sciences. In this paper, I suggested a quantitative way to distinguish between bridge employment and encore careers and evaluated the socio-demographic and economic factors that are associated with the choice of these retirement pathways. 

My (updated) last chapter of dissertation is now available as an NBER working paper. In this research, I worked with my long time mentor Dr. Morris M. Kleiner, to examine how occupational licensing influences older workers' choice of retirement options. We find that occupational licensing allows older workers to choose more flexible retirement options, implying that licensed workers tend to enjoy more employee benefits even toward the end of their careers.