Research
Working papers
The Unintended Consequences of Post-Disaster Policies for Spatial Sorting (with Marcel Henkel and Pierre Magontier) Journal of Political Economy (Revise and Resubmit)
Abstract: We provide new empirical and theoretical evidence on the spatial consequences of public policies driven by electoral motives. Using exogenous variation in the timing of natural disasters, we show that hurricanes occurring close to Election Day in the United States lead to increased local post-disaster efforts. These electorally motivated measures lead populations to sort into hazard-prone areas. To comprehend the aggregate implications of this sorting pattern, we introduce the relationship between electoral cycles and public policies in a spatial equilibrium model. These electorally motivated policies generate considerable productivity and output losses without being compensated by aggregate welfare gains.
The Impacts of Asian Immigrants on School Performance and Local Housing Markets in the U.S. (with Amanda Ang and Siqi Zheng) (Submitted)
Abstract: This study examines the influence of Asian immigrants on housing price appreciation, distinguishing between the effects of education and non-education factors, based on US county-level data (2009 - 2018). To address potential endogeneity concerns, instrumental variables are employed to account for Asian immigrants' location choices and school performance outcomes. The results indicate that housing price appreciation associated with Asian immigrants is primarily observed in counties with the highest Asian population shares. Furthermore, the presence of Asian students contributes to improved academic performance among students of other races, with approximately one-third of the housing price appreciation linked to enhanced school outcomes.
Why Do Improvements in Transportation Infrastructure Reduce the Gender Gap in South Korea? (with Narae Lee)
Homer Hoyt Doctoral Dissertation Award 2021 (Honorable Mention); Lusk Real Estate Center Research Grant; KSEA Best Poster Award; AREUEA Dissertation Award
Abstract: This study investigates whether the increases in connectivity across cities help reduce the gender gap in labor market outcomes —a question for which there is limited prior evidence. With its high level of gender disparity, South Korea provides an ideal setting to study this issue thanks to its extensive geocoded micro-panel datasets and a massive expansion of High-Speed Rail (HSR) beginning in 2004. Using an instrumental variable strategy that leverages historical railroads constructed in Korea during the Japanese colonial era, I demonstrate empirically that the gender gap in the South Korean labor market decreased with the expansion of high-speed rail (HSR). Specifically, the gender gap in employment (wages) fell by 20% (16%) in core areas (Seoul metropolitan) and 16% (0%) in non-core regions (outside of the Seoul metropolitan). I employ a spatial general equilibrium model to structurally decompose HSR’s impact into labor demand and supply channels to understand the mechanisms at play. The quantitative decomposition shows that overall, HSR increased labor demand for female-intensive jobs and decreased women’s labor participation costs. Finally, the empirical evidence of the structural estimation is provided that labor demand for local service industries where women are hired more intensively increased most with HSR. In addition, in non-core areas, women’s participation in the labor force was encouraged by improvement in local amenities, particularly in the areas of education and childcare, which reduced women’s childcare burdens.
Work in Progress
The Effect of Targeted Subsidies on Poverty Exposure of Housing Voucher Recipients: Evidence from the Small-Area Fair Market Rents (w/ Mike Eriksen, Guoyang Yang) Draft Coming Soon!
Confidential data acquired from the U.S. Dep of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Zoning and the Density of Urban Development (with Matt Delventhal, Andrii Parkhomenko, and Jaehee Song)
Peer-reviewed Publication
The Rise of E-commerce and Generational Consumption Inequality: Evidence from COVID-19 in South Korea (with Hyunbae Chun and Dongyun Yang), Regional Science and Urban Economics (Accepted!)
Abstract: Using COVID-19 as a sudden negative mobility shock in consumption accessibility, we show that the ability to shift to online consumption as an alternative to physical visits to brick-and-mortar stores disproportionately benefits younger people. Employing credit card transaction data linked to cardholders’ demographic characteristics, we construct online spending shares by age group to study the generational disparity in online consumption when consumer mobility was constrained. We estimate a difference-in-difference model based on an exogenous regional outbreak of COVID-19 in South Korea. Our results show that when the mobility costs to offline stores unexpectedly increased due to the pandemic, the older groups (45 and older) were less likely to shift their spending online than younger people (20 - 44). The limited shift to the online consumption of older people resulted in decreases in their total consumption, while that of younger ones changed little, thereby increasing generational consumption inequality. With the rising trend of e-commerce, our findings highlight that the generational difference in the adaptation to new shopping technologies is an increasingly important factor impacting consumption inequality.
Work from Home and Urban Structure (with Matt Delventhal, Andrii Parkhomenko), Built Environment, 49(3), 2023: 503-524
Migration, Labor Markets, and Housing, Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics, 2023 [pdf]
JUE Insights: How Do Cities Change When We Work from Home? (with Matt Delventhal, Andrii Parkhomenko) , Journal of Urban Economics, 2022
Media: LA Times, Time magazine, The Conversation, USC Tommy Talks, USC News, Academic Times, Skift, Fast Company,
Learning with Differing-Ability Peers: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in South Korea (with Seungwoo Chin), The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, 2022
The Effect of Super Supermarket on the Entry and Exit of Retail Stores in Korea (with Hyunbae Chun), Korean Economic Review, 2016 (in Korean)
Non-academic Writings
Zoning and the Density of Urban Development (with Andrii Parkhomenko, Matthew J Delventhal), Pacific Southwest Region 9 UTC, 2020/8/31
cited: J.P Morgan (2023 Oct)
What Will Become of our Cities if Work-from-home Truly Becomes the New Normal? University of Barcelona, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona, IEB Report 2021/1. (Editor: Jordi Jore-Monseny, Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal)
Harmonization of Cross-National Studies of Aging to the Health and Retirement Study – User Guide: Physical and Anthropometric Measurement (with Peifeng Hu) CESR Reports, Report No. 2018-001, Jan 2018
What Happens when Affordable Housing Comes to my Back Yard: Evidence from Los Angeles (with Rashad Ahmed, Andreas Aristidou, and Matthew E. Kahn)