Seungmin studies the gap between policy design and policy access, asking why public programs ranging from income support to health coverage often fail to reach the people they are designed to serve. Specifically, she uses insights from behavioral science to consider why eligible people miss out on the benefits they are entitled to, how frictions in citizen-state interactions shape who actually gets served, and how tools such as information provision and simplification can reduce exclusion errors and help close that gap. Closing that gap also requires better decisions inside government, and she is interested in how behavioral evidence can inform the way public organizations design, target and evaluate their policies.

Before coming to Maxwell, she earned a master's degree in public policy from Seoul National University and a B.A. in public administration and economics from Korea University. She is excited to work with the Maxwell X Lab, directed by her advisor Professor Leonard Lopoo.

Behavioral economics, citizen-state interactions, decision-making

Behavioral economics, citizen-state interactions, decision-making