Department of Economics
Assistant Professor of Economics
Southern Methodist University
I go by Woo.
I am an applied microeconomist whose research integrates family and urban economics.
I study how economic conditions and public policy shape migration, education, and childbearing, and how demographic change reshapes labor markets and inequality across places. I assemble data from sources ranging from administrative records and surveys to high-frequency transaction data. I combine these data with quasi-experimental designs and economic models to identify causal effects and evaluate consequences for earnings, health, and household welfare.
Revised and resubmitted at Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
Childbirth sharply raises maternal mental-health diagnoses, especially after a second birth, while baby bonuses do little to mitigate the increase.
Submitted
Robot adoption attracts job-related migrants to labor-scarce regions, especially where manufacturing labor markets are initially tighter.
Journal of Human Resources
Local cash transfers raise fertility and reduce the male bias in the sex ratio at birth, while changing the composition of births.
Labour Economics
Public-sector relocations generate roughly one private-sector job per relocated public-sector job, with gains concentrated in receiving neighborhoods.
American Economic Review: Insights
Spatially targeted lockdowns lower economic losses relative to uniform restrictions at a common case count.
I teach urban economics and applied econometrics at the undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D. levels. My teaching emphasizes economic reasoning, careful empirical work, and independent thinking.
Courses and teaching approach