Korea University · 経済学
Professor Kanghyock Koh's research lab specializes in behavioral and public economics, with a focus on the interplay between economic policy, individual well-being, and household economic behavior. The lab investigates how social insurance programs, health care access, pension reforms, and transitory income shocks affect consumption, savings, health outcomes, and intergenerational transfers. Using high-quality longitudinal and panel data from Singapore, South Korea, and the United States, the lab employs rigorous empirical methods such as regression discontinuity designs and difference-in-differences to assess the real-world impacts of policy interventions.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
We examine the short-term impact of COVID-19 on consumption spending and its underlying mechanisms using individual-level monthly panel data from Singapore. Although Singapore's case fatality rate was one of the lowest in the world in the early stage of the pandemic (0.05%), we find that the COVID-19 pandemic reduced household consumption spending by almost one quarter at its peak, with a larger response from households with above-median wealth. We show that the reduction in consumption spending
We study the role of access to health insurance coverage as a determinant of individuals' subjective well-being (SWB) by analyzing large-scale healthcare reforms in the United States. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we find that the 2006 Massachusetts reform and 2014 Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion improved the overall life satisfaction of Massachusetts residents and low-income adults in Medicaid expansion states, respecti
We examine the health impacts of early access to public pension wealth by exploiting a unique policy in Singapore allowing individuals to withdraw a proportion of their pension savings after their 55th birthday. For the identification, we employ a regression discontinuity design by comparing individuals before and after their 55th birthday. To address anticipated and lagged health impacts, we adopt the donut regression discontinuity approach. Using nationally representative monthly panel data, w
We study the effects of a new social insurance program for the elderly on their private cash transfers from adult children, living arrangements, and labor supply in South Korea. Using nationally representative household survey data, we find robust evidence that the social insurance program reduced private cash transfers from adult children. The estimated crowding-out effects are around −1. However, we find little impacts of the policy on the probabilities of coresidence with adult children or gr
Abstract We study the effects of lottery winning on consumption spending using household survey data of older individuals aged 50–70 years in Singapore. We find strong consumption responses to a transitory income shock from lottery wins, and lottery winners spend about half of their prizes within 12 months of winning. We show that consumption responses are stronger among households with more binding liquidity constraints. The strong consumption response suggests that fiscal stimulus policies or
Abstract It is widely maintained that scientists have become increasingly specialized with a narrow range of expertise ever since the era of “Renaissance men.” However, evidence on scientists' specialization is rather anecdotal. We provide large‐scale evidence to address whether younger generations of inventors have indeed become more specialized, using a unique panel data set of Korean inventors. We also investigate how the degree of specialization evolves over an inventor's research career and
The Medicaid coverage "cliff" occurs when Medicare beneficiaries with household income exceeding 100% of the federal poverty level lose eligibility for supplemental Medicaid coverage. Using a regression discontinuity design with data from Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for 2007-2019, we demonstrate that the cliff increases out-of-pocket spending by 25% and the probability of experiencing problems paying medical bills by 44.4% without decreas
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