School of Social and Political Science

Taehwan Kim

PhD Student

Outdoor portrait of Taehwan Kim in academic attire, standing in front of a historic library building.
T.Kim-15@sms.ed.ac.uk
07716 432181
https://www.linkedin.com/in/taehwan-kim-ba7143284/
Chrystal Macmillan Building, The University of Edinburgh
15a George Square
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
EH8 9LD

Research interests

Governance of welfare states Methods UK and Comparative Politics Welfare, policy and Covid-19 Work & Economy
  • Unemployment protection design: eligibility, benefit generosity and duration, conditionality
  • Dualisation and outsider protection in welfare states
  • Precarious work and labour market polarisation
  • Interface between unemployment insurance and minimum income schemes
  • Activation and workfare, including ALMP mix and sanction regimes
  • Comparative welfare state change in Europe and Korea
  • Poverty and unemployment risks among precarious workers
  • Methods: principal component analysis, multilevel models, policy typologies, cross-national microdata

Background

Taehwan Kim is a PhD student in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh. His research examines how the design of unemployment protection—covering eligibility, benefit generosity and duration, and conditionality—shapes dualisation and outsider protection in a comparative perspective. Building on prior work on labour market polarisation, precarious work, and active labour market policy, he compares the institutional architecture and the real world outcomes of unemployment systems across countries, with a focus on precarious workers. Alongside this dissertation, he is conducting a complementary study on how European welfare states have reformed unemployment protection for precarious labour since the 2000s, tracing cross national patterns and their implications for poverty and employment risks. 

He previously earned an MSc in Comparative Social Policy from the University of Oxford and MA and BA degrees in Social Welfare from Chung Ang University. His publications include articles in Journal of Contemporary Asia, Korean Social Policy Review, and Quarterly Journal of Labor Policy, alongside policy reports on unemployment protection and labour-market reforms.

Publications

• Oh, Y.R. & Kim, T.H. (2024). Analysis of intergenerational multicultural acceptance gap and influencing factors : Focusing on the youth and elderly. Journal of Multi-Cultural Contents Studies, 48, 91-119, [In korean] DOI: 10.15400/mccs.2024.06.48.04

• Kim, T.H. & Lee, S.S.Y. (2023). Double Poverty: Class, Employment Type, Gender and Time Poor Precarious Workers in the South Korean Service Economy. Journal of Contemporary Asia, DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2023.2176782.

• Kim, T.H., Lee, S.S.Y. & Park, J.H. (2022). The Shadow of Night Delivery: A Qualitative Study on Labor Precariousness and Health Risks of Night Delivery Workers, Quarterly Journal of Labor Policy, 22(1), 1-31. [In korean]

• Lee, S.S.Y. & Kim, T.H. (2021). A Study on the Future Orientation of Active Labor Market Policy for a Just Transformation. Korean Social Policy Review, 28(4), 3-44. [In korean]

• Baek S.H., Lee S.S.Y. & Kim T.H. (2021). Nonstandard Forms of Work and Challenges of Social Protection Reform. Korean Social Security Studies, 37(2), 139-176. [In korean]

• Baek S.H., Lee S.S.Y., Kim T.H. & Park S.J. (2020) Current Status and Implications of Employment Safety Nets in Major Countries. Audit and Inspection Research Institute. [In korean]

• Kim, T.H. (2020). Universal Employment Insurance, How should it be designed?. Controversial Issues, 55(568), 5, Chung-Ang Herald. [In korean]

Works within

Taehwan Kim's Research Explorer profile