Korean Millennials Working Paper Series

The Korean Millennials Working Paper Series are papers that are produced by researchers of the Korean Millennials: Coming of Age in the Era of Inequality research project which investigates multifaceted challenges faced by Korean Millennials in their pathways to adulthood in the context of rising inequality. During the five-year period of investigation, our interdisciplinary and multi-method research lab aims to achieve four related objectives:

1. to develop a theoretical framework using the life-course perspective to understand the distinctive and complicated pathways to adulthood taken by Korean Millennials;
2. to conduct empirical studies about these pathways and the individual-, family-, and institution-level factors that affect them, as well as Korean Millennials’ subjective perceptions of adult status and social, political views;
3. to understand Korean Millennials’ coming of age in comparative perspective by comparing their objective and subjective aspects of transition to adulthood with those of Japanese and Taiwanese as well as those of Korean and other Asian Americans in the United States; and
4. to make this research available to the public and policymakers in order to help formulate policies to deal with the urgent issues facing Korean Millennials.

Currently, the lab consists of a lab director (Hyunjoon Park), four lab fellows (Grace Kao, Seung-kyung Kim, Joongback Kim, and Jaesung Choi), and several students. This project is funded by the Laboratory Program for Korean Studies through the Ministry of Education of Republic of Korea and Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies. Support from the Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania is acknowledged.