My research examines how social inequalities are produced, reproduced, and measured across the life course. My substantive research focuses on family dynamics, gender, and migration, with particular attention to how couple-level resources and gender norms shape the well-being and socioeconomic incorporation of immigrant women. Complementing this work, I study how labor market histories shape health and develop quantitative demographic methods to improve the identification and interpretation of population processes.
Family, Migration, and Inequality
Marriage migration is often framed as a pathway to upward mobility: by moving to a wealthier society and marrying a husband with more education than their own, migrant women are expected to realize the aspirations that motivated their move. Yet this promise often goes unfulfilled, a paradox of global hypergamy. My dissertation examines how spouses’ resources and gender ideologies shape marriage migrant women’s lives in South Korea. Across three studies, I investigate well-being, the division of housework, and labor market outcomes, and I show how cross-border marriages can contribute to family stratification in the receiving society.
Study 1: Educational Pairing and Life Satisfaction
Question: Does hypergamy improve migrant women's life satisfaction, or do couple-level educational resources matter more?
Main finding: Most migrant women are in unions with limited educational resources, and absolute resources matter more for life satisfaction than relative standing (hypergamy, homogamy, or hypogamy). These patterns suggest that cross-border marriages can contribute to family stratification in the receiving society.
Results figurePredicted probability of reporting very satisfied with life, by couple educational pairing (95% CI).Paper details
Shin, Sohee, and Tim F. Liao. Educational Pairing and Life Satisfaction Among Marriage-Migrant Women in South Korea.Comparative Migration Studies. Revise and Resubmit.
Study 2: Gender Ideology, Resources, and Housework
Question: How do gender ideology and couple-level resources jointly shape the division of housework?
Paper details
Shin, Sohee. When Do Resources Matter? Gender Ideology and Housework in Transnational Marriages in South Korea. Working Paper.
Study 3: Educational Pairing and Labor Market Outcomes
Question: How do couple-level educational resources shape migrant women's labor market participation and occupational outcomes?
Paper details
Shin, Sohee. Educational Pairing and Labor Market Participation among Marriage-Migrant Women in South Korea. Working Paper.
Demographic Methods
Alongside my substantive research, I collaborate on quantitative methods for demographic research. Our methodological work focuses on age–period–cohort (APC) analysis and cohort identification. Using simulation studies, we evaluate the performance of existing APC models and develop methodological guidance for improving the identification, estimation, and interpretation of cohort effects.
Related work
Shin, Sohee, and Tim F. Liao. Addressing the Fuzzy Cohort Problem in the APC-I Model.Sociological Methods & Research. Revise and Resubmit.
Employment and Health
Health inequalities can emerge through the accumulation of advantages and disadvantages across working life. My research examines how sustained occupancy of, and movement between, occupational class positions from young adulthood to midlife are associated with physical and mental health at age 50. Focusing on class differences in employment relations, I investigate how these histories may reflect unequal opportunities to accumulate resources and sustained exposure to adverse working conditions.
Related work
Shin, Sohee, and Tim F. Liao. Unequal Exposure, Equal Vulnerability, Unequal Incidence: Unemployment Duration and Hypertension Risk Across Race in the United States.Social Sciences 15(10): 665. 2026. DOI ↗
Shin, Sohee, and Jeehae Kang. Occupational Class Trajectories and Midlife Health: Cumulative Disadvantage Across the Life Course. Working Paper.
