On May 3rd, 2018, Hoon Choi defended his doctoral thesis titled " Essays in labour and education economics in Korea” supervised by Dr. Raul Ramos Lobo and Dr. Alvaro Borja Choi de Mendizábal.

The doctoral committee was composed of Dr. Antonio Di Paolo (Universitat de Barcelona, Dr. de Lorenzo Cappellari (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore & IZA),  and Dr. José Luis Raymond Bara (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) who decided to grade the PhD thesis with an “Excellent  ” mark with the mention of Cum Laude   

This doctoral thesis studies diverse social and economic problems arising from duality in the labour market and proliferation of private tutoring in the education system in Korea. The first essay estimates the impact of an education policy regulating the operating hours of private tutoring academies on private tutoring consumption. The second essay evaluates the effectiveness of a labour reform that prohibits discrimination based on employment type. Finally, the last essay explores labour union wage effects in Korea.