Sam‐Ho Lee

This article introduces a new model of early contracting. Employers who have private information about the applicant's ability worry that applicants who accept their offer are precisely those who were not offered other jobs. To avoid this winner's curse, employers anticipate the time of contracting. The model is developed in the context of university admissions, and is shown to be consistent with several stylized facts in that “market.” We show that, in contrast to received wisdom, allocative ef

Using Korean data, this study investigates whether son-favoring ideas or the preference for sons affect fertility decisions. Son-favoring fertility behavior in Korea is of interest because the sex ratio at birth has recovered to a natural level after having been very skewed. To isolate the effects of the preference for sons from the effects of the surrounding environment, we compare the fertility behavior of individuals living in the same region but who were born in different regions or years. E

This article provides an empirical measure to compare incentive effects of different tournament structures. Although there have been many theoretical attempts to analyze incentive effects of a tournament competition, empirical applications are limited as the provided conditions cannot easily be empirically observed. We show that the empirical density of the performance distribution can be used to measure effort incentives in a tournament with many participants. We apply this method to evaluate t

본 논문은 기존의 사교육 관련 논의를 일관된 이론 틀에서 요약하고 비교하려는 시도이다. 이를 위해 우리는 사교육을 적정한 인적 자본 투자를 위해 공교육의 보완물로 이해하려는 이론과 서열화된 대학에 진학하기 위한 경쟁 수단으로 보는 이론을 소개하고, 이런 이론 틀로 기존 논의를 검토한다. 우리는 현재 성행하는 사교육이 위 두 이론으로 설명하기 어려운 선행학습임을 보이고 이를 학생의 선행 학습 유인과 교사 및 학교의 평가 기준 설정의 상호작용으로 설명한다. 이에 따르면, 교사 입장에서는 학생들의 선행 학습이 광범위하기 때문에 교과 과정을 넘어서는 평가 기준을 제시하며, 학생 입장에서는 교과 과정을 넘어서는 평가 기준이 요구되어서 선행학습이 더욱 심화된다. 선행 학습을 줄이기 위해 서로 상승 작용하는 이 두 가지 기제 중 한 축인 평가 기준을 고정시키는 방안을 제시한다.

본 논문은 한국 사회학계에서 사회관계망을 긍정적, 부정적 의미로 구분하는 연결망과 연줄망 개념을 이론적으로 이해하려는 시도이다. 이를 위해 일방적인 도움의 교환이라는 측면에 주목하여 사회관계망의 역할과 출현 가능한 규범에 대하여 논의한다. 사회관계망은 경제주체들의 행위에 대한 정보를 유통시키는 망으로서, 사회관계망 내에서 도움의 교환을 활성화시키는 역할을 하며, 이를 기초로 도움을 교환하는 규범이 출현한다. 그런데 사회관계망에서 도움의 교환을 지속시키기 위해서는 규범을 어겼을 때의 손실을 강화해야 하며, 이로 인해 비효율적인 도움의 교환이 가능할 수도 있다. 비효율적인 도움의 교환은 사회관계망으로부터의 이탈과 그로 인한 사회관계망의 붕괴를 가져올 수 있는데, 이 경우 사회관계망의 유지를 위해서 모두에게 손해인 배타적인 규범, 즉 연줄망이 등장한다.

Chonsei lease arrangements, in which an up-front deposit is paid at the start and returned at the end of a lease without any periodic payments, are a unique and dominant form of lease in Korea. This paper offers a simple model to explain the existence of the chonsei lease arrangement. The chonsei deposit can be thought of as a loan from the tenant to the landlord, and interest is paid in the form of housing consumption. From this perspective, a chonsei deposit is cheap because the calculated int

Chonsei lease arrangements, in which an up-front deposit is paid at the start and returned at the end of a lease without any periodic payments, are a unique and dominant form of lease in Korea. This paper offers a simple model to explain the existence of the chonsei lease arrangement. The chonsei deposit can be thought of as a loan from the tenant to the landlord, and interest is paid in the form of housing consumption. From this perspective, a chonsei deposit is cheap because the calculated int

This dissertation contains three essays on applied microeconomics. “Early admission program; does it hurt efficiency”? Early admission program is an essential part of the admission process at selective universities in US. Recent empirical findings show that early admission standards are lower than regular admission standards. This gives rise to concerns about the inefficiency in selection of students that might be caused by early admission programs. This essay studies the university admission pr

Abstract Cultural capital is the term suggested to explain the phenomena that seemingly productivity‐irrelevant cultural activities may lead to better economic outcome for individuals. A simple model is proposed to explain the emergence of cultural capital. The cost of acquiring a cultural attribute plays a role in the emergence of cultural capital. The importance of cultural capital is compared between two groups distinguished by a natural attribute. The cultural capital in the economically wor

Two conditions should be satisfied if fiscal policy is to stabilize economic cycles; proper policy timing and significant policy effect. This paper evaluates whether the policy timing has been proper in Korea by investigating the correlation between fiscal policy stance and economic conditions. We first calculate quarterly FIs (Fiscal Impulse) using the estimated potential GDP and fiscal balance data. Based on these indices, we 1) analyze how FIs respond to the economic conditions summarized in

While a tournament competition can induce the optimal incentive to work, it usually harms cooperation among participants. This paper shows how this adverse effect of a tournament can be reduced without impairing the incentive to work. As the pool of competitors in a tournament expands while the portion of winners is held constant, the negative effect on cooperation diminishes while the incentive to work remains.