Abstract: I examine how the shift from an exam to a district based high school assignment rule impacts intergenerational mobility and residential inequality. A stylized model predicts that under district assignment, household income relative to one’s ability becomes a stronger predictor of achievement, and higher income households sort towards and increase housing prices in the better school districts. I test predictions utilizing a unique policy change from South Korea in the 1970s. High school admission had traditionally been exam based in South Korea. However, between 1974 and 1980 the central government shifted several cities to a school district based system. I find that the reform increased intergenerational income elasticity from 0.15 to 0.31, and that higher income households migrated to the reform cities. I next examine whether school districting altered residential land prices within a city using a first differenced boundary discontinuity design. By focusing on the immediate years before and after the creation of school districts in Seoul, I find that residential land prices increased by about 13% point more on average and by about 26% point across boundaries in the better school district. In sum, I find that the shift from a merit to a location based student assignment rule decreases intergenerational mobility and increases residential inequality.

Professor Lee's research intersects the fields of economic development, political economy, urban economics and public economics, and regionally focuses on Korea and East Asia. Some of his recent research on Korea examines the impact of economic sanctions on the urban elites in North Korea and the impact of education policy on intergenerational mobility in South Korea. His research also examines entrepreneurship and urban growth, the efficacy of disaster aid delivery, and the relationship between aid and trade. Professor Lee is a member of the US-Korea Scholar-Policymaker Nexus Program organized by the Mansfield Foundation and the Korea Foundation. He received his PhD in economics from Brown University, master of public policy from Duke University, and bachelor degree in architecture from Seoul National University. As he made the transition from architecture to economics, he worked as an architecture designer and real estate development consultant.

The Stanford Korean Studies Program (KSP) and the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), with support from Hana Financial Group, are offering a very exciting and intensive professional development opportunity for secondary school teachers: The Hana–Stanford Conference on Korea for U.S. Secondary School Teachers. This three-day summer conference will feature scholarly lectures and curricular presentations on topics such as Korean history, North Korea, inter-Korean relations, politics, economics, culture, and U.S.–Korean relations. We hope to bring together educators who are interested in incorporating Korean studies into their curricula and to provide a venue for them to learn and exchange ideas.

All conference meals and registration costs will be covered by the conference. For those who reside more than 50 miles from Stanford University, shared hotel accommodations and reasonable airfare expenses will be covered. Each teacher will be given a $300 stipend to cover incidental expenses and also receive an excellent selection of books and complimentary teaching materials about Korea. In addition, teachers can earn an optional 2 units of credit from Stanford Continuing Studies.

Space is limited to 30 teachers from secondary schools throughout the United States. Teachers from out of town are encouraged to arrive on July 27, 2014. To apply to attend the conference, please fill out the Applicant Registration Form and return it to the address below by February 7, 2014. We will notify you once your applicant registration form has been reviewed by the selection committee. 

For more information, please contact Sabrina Ishimatsu at sishi@stanford.edu.

• 2013 Conference Agenda
• 2012 Conference Agenda

In an effort to infuse Asian studies in the social studies and literature curricula, the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), in cooperation with the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia (NCTA), is offering a professional development opportunity at Stanford University.

This all day workshop will focus on teaching about Korea in the social studies classroom. Participants will hear from top Korea scholars, engage in Korea related curriculum, and network with other local teachers.  This is the third workshop in a four part series.

In an effort to infuse Asian studies in the social studies and literature curricula, the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), in cooperation with the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia (NCTA), is offering a professional development opportunity at Stanford University.

This all day workshop will focus on teaching about Japan in the social studies classroom. Participants will hear from top Japan scholars, engage in Japan related curriculum, and network with other local teachers.  This is the second workshop in a four part series.

In an effort to infuse Asian studies in the social studies and literature curricula, the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), in cooperation with the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia (NCTA), is offering a professional development opportunity at Stanford University.

This all day workshop will focus on teaching about ancient China and the Silk Road. Participants will hear from top China scholars, engage in China related curriculum, and network with other local teachers.  This is the first in a four part series.

In an effort to infuse Asian studies in the social studies and literature curricula, the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), in cooperation with the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia (NCTA), is offering a professional development opportunity at Stanford University.

This all day workshop will focus on teaching about China in the social studies classroom. Participants will hear from top China scholars, engage in China related curriculum, and network with other local teachers.  This is the first in a four part series.

Fifty years have passed since the Bracero Program formally ended, yet its legacies endure. During this event, Professor Rodolfo Dirzo (Director, Center for Latin American Studies; Bing Professor of Environmental Science, Stanford University) will address the significance of the Bracero Program not only to the ancestry but also to the human and social capital of people of Mexican descent in the United States. Professor Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar (Director, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Stanley Morrison Professor of Law, Stanford University) will examine the legacy of the Bracero Program on the “here and now” of immigration reform. Their comments will be followed by “teachable moments” that will be shared by former high school teacher Ignacio Ornelas Rodriguez, who currently works in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at Stanford, where he conducts research on the Bracero Program. Following the talks and dinner, ten former braceros will be recognized.

Hosted by the Center for Latin American Studies at Stanford (CLAS), the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University (FSI), and the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE).

We use retrospectively reported data on smoking behavior of residents of Mainland China and Taiwan to compare and contrast patterns in smoking behavior over the life-course of individuals in these two regions. Because we construct the life-history of smoking for all survey respondents, our data cover an exceptionally long period of time – up to fifty years in both samples. During this period, both societies experienced substantial social and economic changes. The two regions developed at much different rates and the political systems of the two areas evolved in very different ways. More importantly, governments in the two areas set policies that caused the flow of information about the health risks of smoking to differ across the regions and over time. We exploit these differences, using counts of articles in newspapers from 1951 to present, to explore whether and how the arrival of information affected life-course smoking decisions of residents in the two areas. We also present evidence that suggests how prices/taxes and key historical events might have affected decisions to smoke.

Dean Lillard received his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in 1991. From 1991 to 2012, he was a faculty member and senior research associate in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University. In August 2012 he joined the Department Human Sciences at Ohio State University as an Associate Professor. He is Director and Project Manager of the Cross-National Equivalent File study that produces cross-national data. He is a member of the American Economics Association, the Population Association of America, the International Association for Research on Income and Wealth, the International Health Economics Association, the American Society for Health Economics, a Research Associate at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, Germany, and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He serves on the advisory board of the Danish National Institute for Social Research in Copenhagen, Denmark and the Cross-National Studies: Interdisciplinary Research and Training Program – a collaborative program run by the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), and together with the Mershon Centre at OSU.

Dean Lillard's current research focuses on health economics, the economics of schooling, and international comparisons of economic behavior. His research in health economics is primarily focused on the economics of the marketing and consumption of cigarettes and alcohol. His research on the economics of schooling includes studies of direct effects of policy on educational outcomes and on the role that education plays in other economic behaviors such as smoking, production of health, and earnings. His cross-national research ranges widely from comparisons of the role that obesity plays in determining labor market outcomes to comparisons of smoking behavior cross-nationally.