Department of Economics

soohlee@stanford.edu

Landau Economics Building

Phone: (650) 996-9034

579 Serra Mall

Fax: (650) 725-5702

Stanford, CA 94305

www.stanford.edu/~soohlee

Education

Ph.D. in Economics, Stanford University. 2002-2008 (expected)

         Thesis Title: Essays on Household Formation and Income Inequality

B.A. in Economics, Seoul National University, 1994-1998 (Summa Cum Laude)

PH.D. Thesis Committee

Professor Pete Klenow  

Professor Luigi Pistaferri

(Co-primary Advisor)

(Co-primary Advisor)

Department of Economics

Department of Economics

klenow@stanford.edu

pista@stanford.edu

Phone: 650 725-8169

Phone: 650 724-4904

Professor John Pencavel

Professor Michèle Tertilt

(Advisor)

(Advisor)

Department of Economics

Department of Economics

pencavel@stanford.edu

tertilt@stanford.edu

Phone: 650 723-3981

Phone: 650 724-4903

Research Fields

Primary : Labor Economics, Economic Growth and Development

Secondary: Applied Econometrics, Macroeconomics, Family Economics

Teaching Experience

Winter 2006

Teaching Assistant for Professor Keun-kwan Ryu , Stanford University

Econ 102B (Introduction to Econometrics)

Spring 2005

Teaching Assistant for Professor Pete Klenow, Stanford University

Econ 52 (Introduction to Macroeconomics)

Research Experience and Employment History

Spring 2006

Research Assistant for Professor Michèle Tertilt, Stanford University

2005

Summer Intern, International Monetary Fund (Washington D.C.)

2003-2005

Research Assistant for Professor Mark Wright, Stanford University

1999-2002

Deputy Director, Ministry of Finance and Economy (South Korea)

Honors, Scholarships, and Fellowships

2007-2008

B.F. Haley and E.S. Shaw Fellowship, SIEPR, Stanford University

2006

Graduate Research Opportunity Fellowship, Stanford University

2006

Taube Fellowship, SIEPR, Stanford University

2002-2005

Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Kwanjeong Educational Foundation

1998

Award for Academic Excellence, Seoul National University

1995-1998

Department Fellowship, Seoul National University

Conference Presentations

March 2007

Pacific Development Conference, UC Davis

July 2006

Society of Economic Dynamics Meeting, Vancouver, Canada

Research Papers

Preferences and Choice Constraints in Marital Sorting:

Evidence From Korea (Job Market Paper)

Abstract

Marital sorting along education, income and other salient dimensions is well-documented for many countries. Understanding the mechanisms behind such sorting is important because the degree of marital sorting may influence income inequality, intergenerational mobility, and household labor supply, as well as other economic outcomes. Marital sorting is often thought to arise from some combination of people's preferences and constraints on their choice sets. However, separating these two causes of marital sorting is difficult because typical data sets provide information on either a person's spouse or a person's dating partners, but not both. This paper circumvents this difficulty by using a novel data set from a major Korean matchmaking company which contains both types of information. The paper analyzes gender-specific marital preferences by estimating a marriage model. Using the estimated model, I find that constraints on people's choice sets may account for a substantial fraction of observed sorting along education and industry in the general population. The recent development of new search technologies, such as online dating services, alleviates these constraints and thus may reduce marital sorting along these dimensions. I also find evidence that changing individual-level income inequality has a very limited impact on marital sorting, implying that such changes are unlikely to be amplified at the household-level by endogenous marital sorting.

The Effects of Education on Labor Reallocation and Economic Growth

Abstract

This paper quantifies the contribution of rising educational attainment to China's economic growth by examining its role in facilitating the reallocation of labor from the agricultural to the non-agricultural sector. After controlling for individuals’ endogenous choices of education and sector, I estimate that completing middle school increases the probability of working in the non-agricultural sector by 36 percent and that an individual can earn several times more income by switching from the agricultural to the non-agricultural sector. The magnitude of these estimates suggests that rising educational attainment can account for about 14 percent of the growth of China’s real GDP per worker from 1978 to 2003. Of this 14 percent, 11 percent can be attributed to labor reallocation between sectors and 3 percent to increased human capital in both sectors. Therefore, considering the enabling role of education in economic growth through its effects on labor reallocation suggests that education’s contribution to growth is significantly greater than previously estimated.

Research Papers in Progress

Program Evaluation with Multiple Outcomes (with Azeem Shaikh and Joanne Yoong)

Education and China’s Structural Transformation: A General Equilibrium Approach

(with Benjamin Malin)

The Effects of Temptation on the Optimal Provision of Education

(SIEPR Discussion Paper:05-003)

Computer Skills

C++, Matlab, Mathematica, SAS, STATA and other software packages

Other Information

Gender: Female

Citizenship: South Korea (F-1 Visa holder)

Languages: English (Fluent), Korean (Native)