I recently moved to Yonsei University. My new email address is: sinnwon@yonsei.ac.kr
Hi, and welcome! I am Sinn Won, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Yonsei University in Seoul. Before joining Yonsei, I taught at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University's Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. I earned my Ph.D. in sociology fromHarvard University.
I am a social demographer studying low fertility issues in postindustrial societies. My current research focuses on: (1) how long-term labor market changes and rising uncertainty shape fertility declines in advanced moderate-fertility countries like the Nordic nations and the U.S.; (2) factors driving the fertility gap between South Korea and Japan since 2000; and (3) the empirical validity of the perceived left-right political fertilit gap in advanced democracies.
My doctoral dissertation, Normative Foundations of Postindustrial Fertility Variation,examined why fertility levels vary across high-income postindustrial societies. It addressed two key questions: (1) in what ways do individuals' perspectives and attitudes toward childbearing reflect the normative context that valorizes the desirable roles of men and women (Population and Development Review,European Sociological Review) and (2) how gender-role beliefs and views of family life have evolved differently across countries.
My previous research tested predictions from two macro-level theoretical frameworks—the Second Demographic Transition and Two-Phase Gender Revolution theories—by analyzing divergent fertility trends in postindustrial Europe since the 1990s (Population and Development Review). I also examined cross-national trends and underlying causes of educational hypogamy—marrying "down" in education— among college-educated women (Demography).