Peer-reviewed Publications (In English) [† Student Co-author]
(11) 2024
Oh, Byeongdon, Ned Tilbrook†, and Dara Shifrer. “Shifting Tides: The Evolution of Racial/Ethnic Inequality in Higher Education from the 1980s through the 2010s” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 10: 1–13. [Open Access]
Abstract: Amid the proliferation of state-level bans on race-based affirmative action in higher education, the US Supreme Court’s decision on June 29, 2023, dismantled race-conscious college admission policies, intensifying concerns about the persistence and potential increase of racial inequality in higher education. This research analyzes four restricted-use national survey datasets to investigate racial disparities in college attendance outcomes from the 1980s through the 2010s. While college entrance rates increased for all racial groups, Black and Hispanic youth became increasingly less likely than their White peers to attend four-year selective colleges. In the 2010s cohort, Black and Hispanic youth were eight and seven percentage points, respectively, less likely than their White counterparts to secure admission to four-year selective colleges, even after controlling for parents’ income, education, and other family background variables. The findings underscore the urgent need for proactive policy interventions to address the widening racial inequality in attending selective postsecondary institutions.
(10) 2023
Oh, Byeongdon, Danny Mackin Freeman†, and Dara Shifrer. “Inequality among the Disadvantaged? Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Earnings among Young Men and Women without a College Education.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 9(3) 342–360. (HHS Public Access) (Media Coverage: Forbes; Berkeley News; Post News Group; The Triangle Tribune; National Affairs; Giving Compass; Futurity; BET; Lipstick Alley; Agenparl)
Abstract: Despite the rapid expansion of higher education, many young adults still enter the labor market without a college education. However, little research has focused on racial/ethnic earnings disadvantages faced by non-college-educated youth. We analyze the restricted-use data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to examine racial/ethnic earnings disparities among non-college-educated young men and women in their early 20s as of 2016, accounting for differences in premarket factors and occupation with an extensive set of controls. Results suggest striking earnings disadvantages for Black men relative to white, Latinx, and Asian men. Compared to white men, Latinx and Asian men do not earn significantly less, yet their earnings likely differ substantially by ethnic origin. While racial/ethnic earnings gaps are less prominent among women than men, women of all racial/ethnic groups have earnings disadvantages compared to white men. The results call for future studies into the heterogeneity within racial/ethnic groups and the intersectionality of race/ethnicity and gender among non-college-educated young adults.
(9) 2023
Oh, Byeongdon, and ChangHwan Kim. “Changing Undergraduate Funding Mix and Graduate Degree Attainment.” The Journal of Higher Education 94(5): 664–689. (Media Coverage: Phys.org)
Abstract: Previous studies of the role of college students’ funding sources in their educational outcomes have focused on individual funding sources and have not paid much attention to the mixing of multiple sources. As rising college tuition has heightened the financial burden on college students, the use of multiple funding sources has become an adaptive funding strategy for completing a college degree. Using discrete funding-source information from the National Survey of College Graduates, this study offers the first exploration of the change in funding mixes across three cohorts — born in 1953–1962, 1963–1972, and 1973–1982 respectively — and their association with graduate degree attainment. The proportion of students who utilized only one or two funding sources decreased, while those who juggled three or more sources increased. Contrary to the oldest cohort, for whom the association between undergraduate funding mix and graduate degree attainment was relatively weak, in the recent cohort, students mobilizing multiple sources became less likely to obtain a graduate degree compared to those fully funded by their families.
(8) 2022
Oh, Byeongdon. “Do Parents Matter for Student Loan Repayment after Graduation?” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 8: 1–16. (Open Access) (Media Coverage: The Hill; University Business; Pressetext)
Abstract: Previous studies suggest that a college degree is the great equalizer leveling the playing field. However, the rapidly growing educational debt of college graduates might restrict their life chances throughout adulthood, particularly for those raised in socioeconomically disadvantaged families. This study uses data from the National Survey of College Graduates to examine whether parents’ socioeconomic status is related to their children’s student loan repayment after graduation. Holding the amount borrowed for completing higher education constant, college graduates with less educated parents hold a larger amount of educational debt in adulthood compared with their counterparts with more educated parents. The association between family background and student loan repayment remains significant with the addition of controls for various covariates related to college graduates’ education, occupation, income, and other labor market outcomes. This study suggests that educational debt burdens imposed on individual college graduates limit the meritocratic power of higher education.
(7) 2021
Kim, ChangHwan, and Byeongdon Oh. “Taste-Based Gender Discrimination in South Korea.” Social Science Research 104(102671): 1–16.
Abstract: Among the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, South Korea shows the worst female earnings disadvantage. Women’s career disruption associated with marriage and childbearing is said to be the primary factor behind the huge female disadvantage in Korea. Recent studies, however, demonstrated that substantial female disadvantage appears prior to women’s career disruption, even net of human capital covariates. In this study, we examine whether taste-based gender discrimination is a source of female earnings disadvantage. We use sex ratios of births across regions during the 1990s as a proxy of prejudice against women in current labor markets. Our empirical results show that female earnings disadvantages among 2009–2017 college graduates are larger in the regions where sex ratios of 1990–1999 newborns were higher. Our results are robust to the control of an extensive set of human capital variables, including concrete college names, detailed fields of study, high school types, and more. Depending on models, one-fourth to one-third of female earnings disadvantage is attributable to prejudice against women. Implications of these findings are discussed.
(6) 2021
Agadjanian, Victor, Byeongdon Oh, and Cecilia Menjívar. “(Il)legality and Psychosocial Well-being: Central Asian Migrant Women in Russia.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 48(1): 53–73.
Abstract: Legal status has shown far-reaching consequences for international migrants’ incorporation trajectories and outcomes in Western contexts. In dialogue with the extant research, we examine the implications of legal status for psychosocial well-being of Central Asian migrant women in the Russian Federation. Using survey data collected through respondent-driven sampling in two large cities, we compare migrants with regularised and irregular legal statuses on several interrelated yet distinct dimensions of psychosocial well-being. We find that, regardless of other factors, regularised status has a strong positive association with migrants’ perception of their rights and freedoms but not with their feeling of being respected in society. Regularised status is positively associated with self-efficacy and negatively with depression. Yet, no net legal status difference is found in migrants’ views on their relations with other migrants or on treatment of migrants by native-borns. The findings are situated within the cross-national scholarship on the ramifications of racialized immigrant (il)legality and its implications for membership and belonging.
(5) 2020
Oh, Byeongdon, and ChangHwan Kim. “Broken Promise of College? New Educational Sorting Mechanisms for Intergenerational Association in the 21st Century.” Social Science Research 86(102375): 1–15. (Media Coverage: Inside Higher Ed; TUN)
Abstract: Previous studies have shown that intergenerational socioeconomic association becomes weaker as children’s education level increases and is negligible among college graduates. A college degree is known as the great equalizer for intergenerational socioeconomic mobility. Recent studies, however, reported that the strong intergenerational association reemerges among advanced degree holders although it stays weak among BA-only holders. Despite the substantial theoretical importance and policy implications, the mechanisms behind the reemergence of the intergenerational association at the post-baccalaureate level have been less studied. In this paper, we examine the association between parents’ education and children’s earnings using the 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2017 National Survey of College Graduates data. Our results show that the strong intergenerational socioeconomic immobility among advanced degree holders is fully attributable to three educational sorting mechanisms: children from high-SES families (1) obtain expensive and financially rewarding advanced degrees, (2) attend selective institutions and major in hyper-lucrative fields of study such as law and medicine in graduate school, and (3) complete their education at a younger age and enjoy income growth over more years in the labor market. Implications of these findings are discussed.
(4) 2020
Rauscher, Emily, and Byeongdon Oh. “Going Places: Effects of Early U.S. Compulsory Schooling Laws on Internal Migration.” Population Research and Policy Review 40: 255–283. (Corresponding author)
Abstract: Both the industrialization thesis and institutional theories of education hypothesize that early educational expansion increased internal migration. We take advantage of state variation in early U.S. compulsory schooling laws and use a regression discontinuity approach to test this hypothesis in 1860–1950 Census data. Results indicate that those required to attend school were more likely to leave their state of birth than others. Effects were stronger among men in states with low occupational status scores, suggesting education encouraged migration out of states with fewer occupational opportunities. Potential contemporary implications for the U.S. and developing countries are discussed.
(3) 2020
Menjívar, Cecilia, Victor Agadjanian, and Byeongdon Oh. “The Contradictions of Liminal Legality: Economic Attainment and Civic Engagement of Immigrants in Temporary Protected Status.” Social Problems 69(3): 678–698.
Abstract: This study examines how Temporary Protected Status (TPS) may shape immigrants’ integration trajectories. Building on core themes identified in the immigrant incorporation scholarship, it investigates whether associations of educational attainment with labor market outcomes and with civic participation, which are well established in the general population, hold for immigrants who live in the “liminal legality” of TPS. Conducted in 2016 in five U.S. metropolitan areas, the study is based on a unique survey of Salvadoran and Honduran TPS holders, the majority of immigrants on this status. The analyses find that TPS holders with higher levels of educational attainment do not derive commensurate significant occupational or earnings premiums from their education. In contrast, the analysis of the relationship between educational attainment and civic engagement detects a positive association: more educated TPS holders are more likely to be members of community organizations and to participate in voluntary community service, compared to their less educated counterparts. These findings illustrate the contradictions inherent to TPS as it may hinder certain aspects of immigrant integration but not others. This examination contributes to our understanding of the implications of immigrants’ legal statuses and of immigration law and policy for key aspects of immigrant integration trajectories.
(2) 2020
Agadjanian, Victor, and Byeongdon Oh. “Continuities in Transition: Ethnicity, Language and Labour Market Inequalities in Kyrgyzstan.” Development and Change 51(6): 1579–1612.
Abstract: Ethno-racial and linguistic boundaries have major implications for socio-economic well-being throughout the world, yet their specific effects vary greatly across contexts. The countries that were once part of the Soviet Union have seen dramatic transformations yet also exhibited remarkable continuities from the socialist era. This article contributes to cross-national evidence on the roots and expressions of ethno-racial socio-economic inequalities and on nation building and nationalism in the post-Soviet context. It uses data from two identically designed nationally representative surveys conducted in Kyrgyzstan in 2011 and 2017 to investigate patterns and trends in ethnic and linguistic disparities in employment by occupational type and economic sector and in earnings among men and women. The authors find that despite government policies to promote the advancement of the nation’s titular majority, Kyrgyz, and to encourage the use of its language, the ethno-linguistic economic inequalities inherited from the Soviet era — privileged positions of the European-origin minority and of Russian-speaking Kyrgyz — were still potently present in the earlier survey. While variations in types of occupation and employment sectors tended to diminish between the two surveys, the ethno-linguistic differences in earnings remained very pronounced, even after controlling for other factors. The authors relate these findings to the extant scholarship and reflect on their implications for our understanding of post-socialist transitions.
(1) 2019
Agadjanian, Victor, Sarah R. Hayford, and Byeongdon Oh. “When Leaving is Normal and Staying is Novel: Men’s Labor Migration and Women’s Employment in Rural Mozambique.” Migration Studies 9(3): 1011–1029.
Abstract: Considerable cross-national research has examined the impact of international labor migration on livelihoods in sending households and communities. Although findings vary across contexts, the general underlying assumption of this research is that migration represents a novel income-generating alternative to local employment. While engaging with this assumption, we also argue that in many sending communities where labor migration has been going on for generations, it is the decision not to migrate and instead to pursue local livelihood opportunities that might constitute a true departure from the expected behavior. Importantly, both the decisions to migrate and not to migrate are part of a household strategy shaped by gendered negotiation and bargaining. Building on these propositions, we use rich survey data from rural Mozambique, a typical setting of long-established large-scale international male labor out-migration, to examine married women’s gainful employment outside subsistence agriculture as it relates to their husbands’ migration or local work. We find a somewhat lower likelihood of employment among migrants’ wives, compared with nonmigrants’ wives, and this pattern strengthens with increased duration of migration. However, we also find substantial differences among nonmigrants’ wives: women married to locally employed men have themselves by far the highest probability of employment, while wives of nonemployed men are no different from migrants’ wives, net of other factors. These findings are discussed in light of interconnected gendered complexities of both migration-related and local labor market constraints and choices.
Peer-reviewed Publications (In Korean)
(7) 2019
Kim, ChangHwan, and Byeongdon Oh. “No Gender Discrimination before Career Disruption?: Gender Earnings Gap at the Early Stage of Work Career among College Graduates in South Korea.” Korean Journal of Sociology 53(1): 167–204. (Media Coverage: Hankyoreh; M-Economy News; Segye Ilbo; Munwah Ilbo)
(6) 2019
Kim, Kihun, Hongjoon Yoo, and Byeongdon Oh. “The Effects of Career Experiential Learning: Career Maturity and Academic Achievement in Korea.” Journal of Vocational Education Research 33(3): 19–36.
(5) 2014
Yoo, Hongjoon, Kihun Kim, and Byeongdon Oh. “Quality of Work: Exploring Age Stratification and Structural Lag from 1983 through 2012.” Quarterly Journal of Labor Policy 14(3): 1–36.
(4) 2013
Kim, Kihun, and Byeongdon Oh. “College Major Selection: Gender and Socioeconomic Discrimination among Korean Matriculates.” Korean Journal of Sociology of Education 23(4): 59–84.
(3) 2013
Oh, Byeongdon, and Kihun Kim. “The Statistical Estimation of Out-of-School Youth Population for Youth Welfare Policy in Korea.” Journal of Adolescent Welfare 15(4): 31–54.
(2) 2013
Yoo, Hongjoon, Kihun Kim, Inchul Shin, and Byeongdon Oh. “Occupational Aspiration and Mismatch between Desired Occupation and College Major Choice among Korean Students.” Journal of Vocational Education Research 32(6): 91–110.
(1) 2012
Cha, Jongchun, and Byeongdon Oh. “From Socioeconomic Background to Academic Achievement: The Mediate Effect of Educational Aspiration and Participation.” Asian Journal of Education 13(4): 417–441. (Corresponding Author)