Pyung Kim

(Name pronunciation: P-young Kim)

I am a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Center for Spatial Studies and Data Science, University of California, Santa Barbara. My research examines the causes and consequences of spatial inequality in human capital, with a focus on health, social, and disability policy. My work addresses three questions:

1. How do the places where people grow up shape long-run educational and health outcomes?
2. How does geographic access to public services affect safety net benefit take-up?
3. Why do the same policies work in some places but not in others?

I combine quasi-experimental designs, machine learning, and GIS to analyze large-scale data, such as administrative records following 10 million students over three decades. I also conduct fieldwork in under-resourced settings, including rural communities in Kenya.

My work has appeared in Energy Policy and the Journal of Criminal Justice, with a forthcoming article in Climate Policy. I also have revise-and-resubmits at Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and at Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy. I have led and contributed to grant-funded projects supported by the Social Security Administration (SSA, #JSIT24-04) and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR, #90DPBU0006).

Research Fields

• Neighborhood Effects
• Health, Social, and Disability Policy
• Environmental and Climate Policy
• Policy and Program Evaluation

Methods

• Causal Inference and Quasi-Experimental Design
• GIS and Spatial Statistics
• AI and Machine Learning

Contact Me

pyungkim@ucsb.edu
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