Globalization, Economy, and Politics in Asia for MA program in Asian Studies, Political Science Department

Labour relations and employment policy in Asia for SOFI's Labor Market Studies with Management (AKPA) Course

Master thesis supervision at the political science department

Young-hwan earned BA at Yonsei University, Korea, and MA and PhD in political science (with public policy minor) at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, U.S.A. in 2016. He came to SOFI as postdoc researcher in October, 2015 and currently works as research fellow (equivalent to assistant professor).

The overarching research theme is to study how government policies and interactions between labor, business, community organizations, and political parties make difference in economic inequality and social security in response to the structural pressures from globalization, technological change and demographic ageing. His research mainly uses statistical analysis but also utilizes qualitative methods, drawing on language skills and contextual local knowledge. 

Under the supervision of Janet Gornick, Young-hwan’s doctoral thesis attempted to explain cross-national and longitudinal variation in the size of middle-income strata (polarization of income distribution) in 22 OECD countries for the period between 1980 and 2010. Whereas globalization theory and technological change theory attribute the decline of middle-income strata to a common development in the industrial world, this study offered an explanation on why some countries experienced a dramatic decline of the middle group, whereas others have experienced much smaller decline or even expansion over the period. It presented the positive effects of trade unions on the size of the middle-income strata. Trade unions not only directly influence income polarization through collective wage bargaining, but also indirectly through government policy. Trade unions substantially constrain the effects of right-wing government on income polarization. The study drew data from Institutional Characteristics of Trade Unions, Wage Setting, State Intervention and Social Pacts (ICTWSS), Comparative Welfare States Data Set, and Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). 

Byun, Y. (2016). The Politics of Middle Class Decline and Growth in Industrialized Democracies, 1980 to 2010. Doctoral Dissertation, City University of New York, U.S.A.

Young-hwan’s on-going research at SOFI includes:

1) A comparative study for 30 OECD countries that examines how tax and transfer policy jointly affect the government capacity to reduce income inequality and individual preferences over redistribution. This project is funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE).

Byun, Y. (2019). “Government Redistribution and Public Opinion: A Matter of Contention or Consensus?” International Journal of Sociology, 49(3): 204-221.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00207659.2019.1605029

2) A comparative research project on social policy and social development in East Asian countries, including South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, and Indonesia. This project creates East Asian Social Policy Dataset (SPEAD), using the framework of Social Policy Indicator Database (SPIN). The new dataset will enable more systematic research that compares the role of social policy in social development (poverty, income inequality, family relations, gender inequality, industrial relations, fertility rates, women's labor market participation, demographic ageing, etc.) and political, social, and cultural underpinnings of policy change in East Asia with that of Europe and North America, and among East Asian countries. This project is funded by the Korea Foundation, and conducted in collaboration with SOFI colleagues, including Kenneth Nelson, Ola Sjöberg, and Sebastian Siren. 

Byun, Y. (2022). “Welfare Expansion without Inequality Reduction: Institutional Explanation of Old-Age Poverty in Korea.” Journal of Social Policy.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279422000460.

3) A comparative research on non-state social welfare. It examines the role of voluntary and community organizations (VCOs) during the COVID-19 pandemic in reaching out the most vulnerable individuals who have no or limites access to statutory welfare. It compares Sweden with Korea, UK, China, Singapore, and Australia. This project is funded by the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS) and conducted in collaboration with Johan Nordensvärd (Linköping University), Catalina Turcu (University College of London), Bingqin Li (University of New South Wales), and Jiwei Qian (National University of Singapore). Project 'FULL' webpage

Nordensvärd, J., Byun, Y., Sommar, C-J. (2022). "Urban Food Security during COVID-19: The Limits of Statutory Welfare and the Role of Community Action in Sweden and Korea." Urban Governance. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ugj.2022.06.001. (as the corresponding author)

4) A comparative research project on trade unions and wage inequality in the knowledge economy. In collaboration with Tomas Korpi (SOFI), this project will examine how unionization rates of college educated labor, unions' organizing strategies, and institutional arrangement of wage-settings shape the education wage premium (wage differentials between college educated and non college educated labor). Funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, this project expects to proceed from 2023 to 2025.        

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Government Redistribution and Public Opinion

  2019. Young-hwan Byun. International Journal of Sociology 49 (3), 204-221

  Article

  Previous comparative research has been guided by the idea that the level of government redistribution accords with the degree of consensus on redistribution among citizens. By extending the scope of analysis to non-Western rich democracies, I offer an alternative account that associates public opinion with actual redistribution. I argue that it is not a broad consensus but a clearly formed contention among citizens that concurs with more redistributive governments. Using the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) 2016 data, this study compares social cleavages in redistributive preferences in 23 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Countries with the least egalitarian governments, such as South Korea, Taiwan, Chile, and Israel, have broadly consented high-levels of support for redistribution. What distinguishes them from more redistributive countries is that those common redistributive cleavages such as income, education, and gender are either nonexistent or weak, indicating that the economically disadvantaged do not prefer redistribution significantly more than the advantaged. The statistical results support an explanation of the association between redistributive preferences and the size of redistribution based on “cleavage” rather than “consensus.”

  Read more about Government Redistribution and Public Opinion

• Urban food security during COVID-19: The limits of statutory welfare and the role of community action in Sweden and Korea

  2022. Johan Nordensvärd, Young-hwan Byun, Carl-Johan Sommar. Urban Governance

  Article

  During COVID-19, the demand for food relief exploded as vulnerable people were suddenly more numerous and visible than ever, for which statutory welfare was not ready to cope with. We examine the role of voluntary and community organizations (VCOs) in food relief in Stockholm, Sweden and Seoul, Korea. Interpretive analysis of interview materials reveals how VCOs perceive their role vis-à-vis the state and take actions against urban food insecurity during the pandemic. The limits of statutory welfare in reaching out to vulnerable individuals reserve an indispensable role for community action in food relief even with the well-developed welfare state. Despite starkly different welfare state contexts, VCOs in both cases complement statutory welfare by swiftly identifying the risk of hunger and organizing community actions to meet the emergent needs. Given that Sweden and Korea represent the least likely cases to observe welfare provision by VCOs, the findings may have implications to general understanding of VCOs as indispensable welfare provider.

  Read more about Urban food security during COVID-19

• Welfare Expansion without Inequality Reduction: Institutional Explanation of Old-Age Poverty in Korea

  2022. Young-hwan Byun. Journal of Social Policy

  Article

  Old-age poverty in Korea remains exceptionally high among OECD countries despite a significant expansion in pension expenditure. This article presents an institutional explanation for such a puzzle. Using ‘targeting within universalism’ as the analytic framework, this study examines the institutional effects of pension models on old-age poverty in Korea. Firstly, comparative analysis finds that universal provision of pensions negatively affects old-age poverty independent of the expenditure size, identifying Korean pensions as the least universal among OECD countries. Secondly, institutional analysis of the Korean pension system explains why the expenditure growth left a large share of the elderly with no or a partial pension. Finally, microsimulation analysis examines alternative assistance pension models for their potential to alter poverty outcomes. Strikingly, universal models alleviate old-age poverty more cost-effectively than the extant targeting model, questioning the efficiency-based justification for low-income targeting. In particular, the universal floor model appears to be the most effective, allowing greater benefits to the poorer without a means test. Even for assistance benefits, universal models may better remedy poverty under such conditions as low take-up among the needy, prevalence of low-income incidence, and pro-rich distribution of extant social transfers.

  Read more about Welfare Expansion without Inequality Reduction

• Middle-class single parents

  2022. Young-hwan Byun. The Triple Bind of Single-Parent Families, 223-238

  Chapter

  Read more about Middle-class single parents

Show all publications by Younghwan Byun at Stockholm University