Demographics
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Why has Korean pop music (K-Pop) become so popular overseas? A wide variety of explanations have been proposed by academics, journalists and the fans themselves, ranging from superior training and product quality to the strategic usage of social media. Although some of these explanations have become widely-cited especially in the Korean media, whether or not they are actually correct remains largely unknown. To demystify why K-Pop has gained a following overseas, this study examines data on K-Pop concert booking overseas, from 2011 through 2014. The findings highlight the importance of cultural proximity, while casting doubt upon several other widely-cited explanations.

Joon Nak Choi is the 2015-2016 Koret Fellow in the Korea Program at Stanford's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC). A Stanford graduate and sociologist by training, Choi is an assistant professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research and teaching areas include economic development, social networks, organizational theory, and global and transnational sociology, within the Korean context. He recently coauthored Global Talent: Skilled Labor as Social Capital in Korea which he developed the manuscript from 2010-11 while he was a William Perry postdoctoral fellow at APARC.

This event is made possible through the generous support of the Koret Foundation.

Shorenstein APARC
Encina Hall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Joon Nak Choi is the 2015-2016 Koret Fellow in the Korea Program at Stanford University's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC). A sociologist by training, Choi is an assistant professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research and teaching areas include economic development, social networks, organizational theory, and global and transnational sociology, within the Korean context.

Choi, a Stanford graduate, has worked jointly with professor Gi-Wook Shin to analyze the transnational bridges linking Asia and the United States. The research project explores how economic development links to foreign skilled workers and diaspora communities.

Most recently, Choi coauthored Global Talent: Skilled Labor as Social Capital in Korea with Shin, who is also the director of the Korea Program. From 2010-11, Choi developed the manuscript while he was a William Perry postdoctoral fellow at Shorenstein APARC.

During his fellowship, Choi will study the challenges of diversity in South Korea and teach a class for Stanford students. Choi’s research will buttress efforts to understand the shifting social and economic patterns in Korea, a now democratic nation seeking to join the ranks of the world’s most advanced countries.
 
Supported by the Koret Foundation, the Koret Fellowship brings leading professionals to Stanford to conduct research on contemporary Korean affairs with the broad aim of strengthening ties between the United States and Korea. The fellowship has expanded its focus to include social, cultural and educational issues in Korea, and aims to identify young promising scholars working on these areas.

 

2015-2016 Koret Fellow
Visiting Scholar
2015 Koret Fellow 2015 Koret Fellow, Korea Program, APARC, Stanford
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Lisa Griswold
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China announced plans to discontinue its “one-child policy” in October, relaxing over three decades of controversial family planning policies and changing to a universal two-child policy. This new policy is a step forward, but China’s population aging and gender imbalance will create challenges for decades, according to a leading Stanford health researcher.

“China has reached a certain level of social and economic development where low fertility and population aging have become norms,” said Karen Eggleston, a senior fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI) and director of the Asia Health Policy Program. “Similar trends are seen in Japan and South Korea, and governments are struggling to catch up.”

 

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The policy change comes amid concerns of potential labor shortages and a burgeoning aging population that could pressure the Chinese economy for years to come. 

The country has had record growth – China’s GDP growth rate averaged 8.6 percent over the past five years – which is now slowing. That trend coupled with China’s rising life expectancy reinforces the need for a healthy, economically productive population to support the elderly, experts say.

“Demographers who study China knew a policy change was coming, but not when,” said Eggleston. “The policy was strategically announced with the Five Year Plan – a sort of developmental roadmap for the country.”

A forthcoming book, Policy Challenges from Demographic Change in China and India, edited by Eggleston examines the policy challenges posed by demographic change in China and India, from family planning to social pensions systems that support the elderly. One chapter looks exclusively at population policy, sex ratio and fertility in China.

A spur to action?

A shift to a consistent, nationwide two-child policy is a step in the right direction, Eggleston said, and it is unlikely to translate to a boom in the birthrate.

Some areas of the country and specific couples already enjoyed a two-child policy due to local policy differences and an earlier national policy easing. In 2013, the Chinese government allowed couples with a husband or wife from a single-child family to have a second child.

Chinese cities that never had a one-child policy to begin with, like Hong Kong and Macau, have very low fertility. A recent article in China Journal noted that, despite the ubiquity of the one-child policy campaign, China’s rapid economic development since 1980 deserves the “lion’s share of credit” for reduced births as the country’s total fertility rate has declined.

“The real question is how responsive the Chinese will be,” Eggleston said. “It’s not clear that there will be a noticeable response in the short or medium-term.”

Implementation of the policy will take time, but China will work “quite expeditiously” to apply such policies so that people’s expectations are met. Alongside legal change of China’s varying local policies, it’s expected that China will employ several public education campaigns and its cadre of family planning staff as conduits for disseminating the new national policy, Eggleston said.


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Chinese Family Planning Poster

A 1986 poster highlights China's one-child policy.

Credit: Flickr/Collection Stefan R. Landsberger, International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam).


But other factors are at play, too, such as urbanization and changes in labor force participation.

“Young and middle-aged couples will be thinking twice about having another child because of education expense, job demands and the need to support aging parents,” Eggleston said.

paper published by Eggleston and three other scholars in the Journal of Labor & Development analyzed how employment of females from rural areas affected fertility, using data from a survey of 2,355 married women in China. The survey examined “off-farm” employment, which was defined as travel to another village, town or city for work.

The researchers found that off-farm employment for those women reduced the probability of having more than one child by 54.8 percent and the probability of preferring more than one child by 49.6 percent. An earlier blog piece on VoxEU highlighted those research outcomes.

Another aspect of China’s demographic change is gender imbalance. Male preference has long been a cultural factor in China and, with the pressures of the one-child policy, a cause behind its skewed population.

That reality will not dramatically change soon, Eggleston said. Even if the end to the one-child policy brought the sex ratio at birth back to normal levels, the existing imbalance of the younger population will create millions of “forced bachelors” among poorer men who cannot find brides, as well as a whole set of related issues.

Choice restored

What the policy assuredly does, though, is remove a barrier. Many Chinese women who before did not have the opportunity to give birth to a second child, now have that opportunity.

 

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“This is a crucial arena of choice restored to the Chinese,” Eggleston wrote of the 2013 policy relaxation in a brief presented at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Previously, the absence of such a freedom led some couples to face substantial fines from the government, depending on the local variation of the one-child policy.

“Regardless of the new policy, demographic trends point to the importance of investing in child education, nutrition and skill development,” Eggleston said.

A similar message is carried in a chapter in Policy Challenges, co-authored by Sanghyop Lee and Qiulin Chen, who suggest that putting resources toward human capital development – education and health – can offset the destabilizing effects of demographic transition.

Research being done by FSI’s Rural Education Action Program led by Stanford professor Scott Rozelle works to directly inform education, health and nutrition policy in China.

Spending more on education – particularly for women and girls – is win-win. It complements pro-employment policies, and boosts productivity for women and the economy as a whole, Eggleston said.

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A woman in Beijing, China, holds children's balloons.
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Demographic change is fast becoming one of the most globally significant trends of the 21st century. Declining fertility rates and rising life expectancy -- two of the patterns triggering demographic change -- will cause vast socioeconomic strains, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, which has some of the world's most populous countries. Stanford health researcher Karen Eggleston says comparison and cross-collaboration are needed to induce creative solutions.

In an interview with the Office of International Affairs, Eggleston discusses her research approaches and partnerships in the study of healthcare systems and health policy in the Asia-Pacific region. She leads a multiyear research initative that examines comparative policy responses to demographic change in East Asia. Eggleston says the goal is to help move global health policy to a place where everyone has an "equal opportunity for a healthier and longer life."

The Q&A may be viewed in full by clicking here.

Analyzing demographic change in China, Japan and South Korea is the focus of the book Aging Asiaan outcome of a conference between the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the Stanford Center on Longevity.

Eggleston also coedited a special issue of the Journal of the Economics of Ageing with David Bloom, a professor at Harvard University, looking at a range of economic issues related to population change in China and India.

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Karen Eggleston (left) confers with a healthcare worker at a primary care clinic in Hangzhou, China.
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In this session of the Shorenstein APARC Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellows Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

 

Yun Bae Lim, Samsung Life Insurance, “Demographic Changes in Korea:  How to Cut Through the High Seas”

Particularly in industrialized countries, people are living longer, while birth rates are declining.  Today, the average Korean lives longer than the average citizen in developed nations (as represented by the members of the OECD).  This is a significant milestone for a country that back in the 1960’s had a life expectancy of 52 years, which was amongst the lowest in the world. 

In his research presentation, Lim will focus on these demographic changes and the effects such as the decrease in the producing population, the increase in the total dependency rate and the shrinking potential growth rate.  Lim will offer some policy-related solutions to address this critical issue.

 

Jong Soo Paek, Samsung Electronics, “Open Innovation in the Electronics Industry”

Many companies in the electronics industry are struggling to survive because of lack of demand, low profit, etc.  Companies are also failing to make new innovative business while existing businesses are showing their limitation in terms of growth potential.  As a result, customers are seeing the electronics industry is not innovative. 

To overcome this hurdle, the open innovation model has become more popular replacing the closed innovation model in the past.  The open innovation model is a kind of process or strategy, in which companies can increase new ideas and technologies flowing into their innovation funnel by searching external sources and integrating them with internal ideas and resources.

Even though the open innovation model is really powerful, in reality, for large companies with Asian legacy and culture, it is not an easy task to manage.  There are many issues that undermine the success rate and effectiveness of open innovation such as closed-minds, the NIH syndrome, internal resistance, lack of capabilities necessary and so on.  Through his research presentation, Paek will discuss some solutions that are suitable for large, Asian companies like Samsung Electronics.

 

Philippines conference room

Encina Hall, Third Floor, Central

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Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellow
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Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, Room E301
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 725-8659 (650) 723-6530
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Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellow
jong_soo_paek.jpg MBA

Jong Soo Paek is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2014.  Paek has been working at Samsung Motors, Samsung Corporations, and Samsung Electronics since 1997 in various teams such as Marketing Strategy and Strategy Planning.  Most recently, he was Senior Manager in Corporate Strategy Offices and was responsible for public relations and communications.  Prior to joining the Corporate Strategy Office, he was the manager responsible for strategy planning.  Paek majored in Business Administration and received his bachelor's and master's degree from Seoul National University.

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Former SK Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
yong_resize2.jpg PhD, MPP

Yong Suk Lee was the SK Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Deputy Director of the Korea Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. He served in these roles until June 2021.

Lee’s main fields of research are labor economics, technology and entrepreneurship, and urban economics. Some of the issues he has studied include technology and labor markets, entrepreneurship and economic growth, entrepreneurship education, and education and inequality. He is also interested in both the North and South Korean economy and has examined how economic sanctions affect economic activity in North Korea, and how management practices and education policy affect inequality in South Korea. His current research focuses on how the new wave of digital technologies, such as robotics and artificial intelligence affect labor, education, entrepreneurship, and productivity.

His research has been published in both economics and management journals including the Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Economic Geography, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Health Economics, and Labour Economics. Lee also regularly contributes to policy reports and opinion pieces on contemporary issues surrounding both North and South Korea.

Prior to joining Stanford, Lee was an assistant professor of economics at Williams College in Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University, a Master of Public Policy from Duke University, and a Bachelor's degree and master's degree in architecture from Seoul National University. Lee also worked as a real estate development consultant and architecture designer as he transitioned from architecture to economics.

While at APARC, Dr. Lee led and participated in several research projects, including Stanford-Asia Pacific Innovation; Digital Technologies and the Labor Market; Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Economic Development; The Impact of Robotics on Nursing Home Care in Japan; Education and Development in the Digital Economy; and New Media and Political Economy.

Former Deputy Director of the Korea Program at Shorenstein APARC
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Former Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Senior Fellow in Japanese Studies at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Former Professor, by courtesy, of Finance at the Graduate School of Business
takeo_hoshi_2018.jpg PhD

Takeo Hoshi was Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), Professor of Finance (by courtesy) at the Graduate School of Business, and Director of the Japan Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), all at Stanford University. He served in these roles until August 2019.

Before he joined Stanford in 2012, he was Pacific Economic Cooperation Professor in International Economic Relations at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where he conducted research and taught since 1988.

Hoshi is also Visiting Scholar at Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and at the Tokyo Center for Economic Research (TCER), and Senior Fellow at the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER). His main research interest includes corporate finance, banking, monetary policy and the Japanese economy.

He received 2015 Japanese Bankers Academic Research Promotion Foundation Award, 2011 Reischauer International Education Award of Japan Society of San Diego and Tijuana, 2006 Enjoji Jiro Memorial Prize of Nihon Keizai Shimbun-sha, and 2005 Japan Economic Association-Nakahara Prize.  His book titled Corporate Financing and Governance in Japan: The Road to the Future (MIT Press, 2001) co-authored with Anil Kashyap (Booth School of Business, University of Chicago) received the Nikkei Award for the Best Economics Books in 2002.  Other publications include “Will the U.S. and Europe Avoid a Lost Decade?  Lessons from Japan’s Post Crisis Experience” (Joint with Anil K Kashyap), IMF Economic Review, 2015, “Japan’s Financial Regulatory Responses to the Global Financial Crisis” (Joint with Kimie Harada, Masami Imai, Satoshi Koibuchi, and Ayako Yasuda), Journal of Financial Economic Policy, 2015, “Defying Gravity: Can Japanese sovereign debt continue to increase without a crisis?” (Joint with Takatoshi Ito) Economic Policy, 2014, “Will the U.S. Bank Recapitalization Succeed? Eight Lessons from Japan” (with Anil Kashyap), Journal of Financial Economics, 2010, and “Zombie Lending and Depressed Restructuring in Japan” (Joint with Ricardo Caballero and Anil Kashyap), American Economic Review, December 2008.

Hoshi received his B.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Tokyo in 1983, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988.

Former Director of the Japan Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
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Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall E301
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 723-9072 (650) 723-6530
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Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Center Fellow at the Center for Health Policy and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research
Faculty Research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research
Faculty Affiliate at the Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions
karen-0320_cropprd.jpg PhD

Karen Eggleston is a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Asia Health Policy Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at FSI. She is also a Fellow with the Center for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford University School of Medicine, and a Faculty Research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Her research focuses on government and market roles in the health sector and Asia health policy, especially in China, India, Japan, and Korea; healthcare productivity; and the economics of the demographic transition.

Eggleston earned her PhD in public policy from Harvard University and has MA degrees in economics and Asian studies from the University of Hawaii and a BA in Asian studies summa cum laude (valedictorian) from Dartmouth College. Eggleston studied in China for two years and was a Fulbright scholar in Korea. She served on the Strategic Technical Advisory Committee for the Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and has been a consultant to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the WHO regarding health system reforms in the PRC.

Director of the Asia Health Policy Program, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Stanford Health Policy Associate
Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Center at Peking University, June and August of 2016
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Based on long-term research and regular research-focused visits to China, Dr. Scharping will sketch developments in Chinese birth control since the 1990s. He will also discuss the puzzle of recent Chinese birth figures and the astonishing results of the 2000 national census in China.

Daniel and Nancy Okimoto Conference Room

Thomas Scharping Chair, Modern China Studies e of Cologne, Germany
Seminars
Shorenstein APARC
Encina Hall E301
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
(650) 724-8480 (650) 723-6530
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Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Professor of Sociology
William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea
Professor, by Courtesy, of East Asian Languages & Cultures
Gi-Wook Shin_0.jpg PhD

Gi-Wook Shin is the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea in the Department of Sociology, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the founding director of the Korea Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) since 2001, all at Stanford University. In May 2024, Shin also launched the Taiwan Program at APARC. He served as director of APARC for two decades (2005-2025). As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on social movements, nationalism, development, democracy, migration, and international relations.

In Summer 2023, Shin launched the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL), which is a new research initiative committed to addressing emergent social, cultural, economic, and political challenges in Asia. Across four research themes– “Talent Flows and Development,” “Nationalism and Racism,” “U.S.-Asia Relations,” and “Democratic Crisis and Reform”–the lab brings scholars and students to produce interdisciplinary, problem-oriented, policy-relevant, and comparative studies and publications. Shin’s latest book, The Four Talent Giants, a comparative study of talent strategies of Japan, Australia, China, and India to be published by Stanford University Press in the summer of 2025, is an outcome of SNAPL.

Shin is also the author/editor of twenty-seven books and numerous articles. His books include The Four Talent Giants: National Strategies for Human Resource Development Across Japan, Australia, China, and India (2025)Korean Democracy in Crisis: The Threat of Illiberalism, Populism, and Polarization (2022); The North Korean Conundrum: Balancing Human Rights and Nuclear Security (2021); Superficial Korea (2017); Divergent Memories: Opinion Leaders and the Asia-Pacific War (2016); Global Talent: Skilled Labor as Social Capital in Korea (2015); Criminality, Collaboration, and Reconciliation: Europe and Asia Confronts the Memory of World War II (2014); New Challenges for Maturing Democracies in Korea and Taiwan (2014); History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia: Divided Memories (2011); South Korean Social Movements: From Democracy to Civil Society (2011); One Alliance, Two Lenses: U.S.-Korea Relations in a New Era (2010); Cross Currents: Regionalism and Nationalism in Northeast Asia (2007);  and Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy (2006). Due to the wide popularity of his publications, many have been translated and distributed to Korean audiences. His articles have appeared in academic and policy journals, including American Journal of SociologyWorld DevelopmentComparative Studies in Society and HistoryPolitical Science QuarterlyJournal of Asian StudiesComparative EducationInternational SociologyNations and NationalismPacific AffairsAsian SurveyJournal of Democracy, and Foreign Affairs.

Shin is not only the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, but also continues to actively raise funds for Korean/Asian studies at Stanford. He gives frequent lectures and seminars on topics ranging from Korean nationalism and politics to Korea's foreign relations, historical reconciliation in Northeast Asia, and talent strategies. He serves on councils and advisory boards in the United States and South Korea and promotes policy dialogue between the two allies. He regularly writes op-eds and gives interviews to the media in both Korean and English.

Before joining Stanford in 2001, Shin taught at the University of Iowa (1991-94) and the University of California, Los Angeles (1994-2001). After receiving his BA from Yonsei University in Korea, he was awarded his MA and PhD from the University of Washington in 1991.

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Director of the Korea Program and the Taiwan Program, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Director of Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab, APARC
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