My research investigates how labor market institutions shape the distributional consequences of technological change, migration, and platform-based work. Across these projects, I examine how economic risks are organized, transferred, and contested through employment relations.
Rethinking Labor Market Inequality in South Korea: Automation, Institutions, and Stratification
Examines how automation reshapes labor market inequality by reallocating economic risks across stratified employment relations. Using longitudinal panel data (KLIPS) and qualitative interviews, the dissertation demonstrates that institutionalized employment structures mediate technological change and reorganize inequality beyond wage dispersion.
Automation, Institutions, and Labor Market Stratification
This flagship project examines how automation exposure interacts with stratified labor market institutions in South Korea. It serves as the core dissertation project and job market paper.
Selected presentations: SASE 2026 · World Inequality Conference, Paris School of Economics · LERA 78th Annual Meeting
Platform Labor and Algorithmic Control
This project examines how platform algorithms reorganize managerial authority, labor control, and worker autonomy. It connects platform governance, labor process theory, and fieldwork on digitally mediated work.
Related venues and support: RC21 · WINIR Young Scholars · Starr Student Award · India China Institute
Migration, Labor, and Inequality
This project studies skilled Korean migrant workers and the moral, institutional, and economic conditions under which exploitation becomes normalized or endured. It connects migration, gender, labor market inequality, and stratification economics.
Related venues and support: IAFFE · William R. Waters Research Grant, Association for Social Economics
Graphical Literacy, Misinformation, and Public Interpretation
This collaborative project extends my broader interest in inequality and quantitative reasoning by examining how individuals interpret graphs, statistics, and public information in politically and socially contested contexts. The research focuses on graphical literacy, misinformation, confirmation bias, and the public interpretation of quantitative information in contemporary society.
Collaboration: Debasmita Basu · The New School
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Working PaperAutomation, Stratification, and Institutional Adjustment in South Korea Job Market PaperJob Market Paper in Progress · Presented at LERA 2026 Best Paper Session; forthcoming presentations at SASE 2026 and the World Inequality Conference (PSE) under related conference framings.
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Working PaperProgramming Apps, Programming Workers: Algorithmic Control and the Institutionalization of Autonomy Working PaperAI, Labor, and Algorithmic Control Project · Funded by Starr Student Award · RC21 presentation · Revise & Resubmit target: 2026
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ForthcomingInstitutional Void, Moral Economy, and Consented Endurance: How Educated Young Korean Women Migrant Workers Accept Exploitation Book ChapterIn J.B. Davis (ed.), Stratification Economics in the Global Economy. Routledge. Invited.
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2019Persistence and Change in Local Government Welfare Policy: Evidence from School Meal Programs in South KoreaPolicy Research (정책연구), 3(1): 1–31
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2018Chapter 5: Quality of Labor Market and Quality of Life in South Korea Book ChapterLee, H. & Yang, J.-j. · In MJ Moon (ed.), Government Quality and Quality of Life. Moonwoosa.
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2017Who Are Outsiders in the South Korean Labor Market?Lee, H. & Yang, J.-j. · Korean Policy Studies Review, 26(2): 65–104
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2016Life Satisfaction and Inequality of Opportunity for Happiness among the Elderly in KoreaYang, J.-j., Lee, H. & Lee, J.-j. · Social Science Review, 47(2)