Korean Early Study Abroad Students:How Do They Narrate Their Personhood as an ESA Student at UIUC?

This research will explore Korean early study abroad students (ESA students: chokiyuhakseng in Korean) in terms of how the pre-college early study abroad experiences in the U.S. affect Korean students??? decisions to end up at UIUC as well as the course of their college lives. I will also investigate if ESA experiences have an effect on these students??? identities as Koreans, especially if their experiences generate intra-ethnic differentiation among Korean students, especially among ESA students. I anticipate that this research project will contribute to the understanding of what the demographic changes that are brought by the increase of Korean ESA students really mean to the UIUC campus both at the individual level of Korean students and at the University level. This study will also give us some clues as to the direct outcome of the early study abroad phenomenon in Korea in a broader sense. Looking into the Korean ESA students is not only meaningful for the Korean student community at UIUC , but also for the University as a whole and for many U.S. universities that may face a same phenomenon because all of them are facing a new challenge which is brought about by increasing number of Korean ESA students.unpublishe

Hierarchical Linear Modeling to Explore the Influence of Satisfaction with Public Facilities on Housing Prices

This paper uses hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to explore the influence of satisfaction with public facilities on both individual residential and overall (or regional) levels on housing prices. The empirical results indicate that the average housing prices between local cities and counties exhibit significant variance. At the macro level, the explanatory power of the variable ¡§convenience of life¡¨ on the average housing prices of all counties and cities reaches the 5% significance level. The influence of the satisfaction with convenience of life in different counties and cities on housing prices exhibits significant variances.Hierarchical linear modeling; Satisfaction with public facilities; Contextual effects; Housing price.

Economic Development in China and Its Implications for East Asia

In the aftermath of the economic crisis of 1997-98 South Korea has undertaken a number of major institutional reforms. What are these reforms? Why were they undertaken? What is the outcome of the reforms? In answering these questions the paper examines the influence that the ideas of political leaders on political economy had in setting forth the reform agenda and the role that various interest groups have played in implementing the reform. It argues that there was a shift in the developmental paradigm in the early 1980s, that the new paradigm guided reforms in Korea during the 1980s and 1990s but with initial conditions and interest politics influencing the implementation and actual outcome of reform, and that the post-crisis reform was a culmination of the reform process that began in the early 1980s.Korea, Institutional Reform, Asian Financial Crisis.