Shoko Araki
Biographic Data
| ID | 238652 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Shoko Araki |
| GIVEN NAMES | Shoko |
| FAMILY NAME | Araki |
| SIGNATURE | ARAKI S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Hong Kong |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0302-959X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 90 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The shifting happiness return to higher education over 50 years: Causal mediation analysis of college completion, economic benefits, and happiness in the USA
Evidence shows higher education (HE) leads to such socio-economic outcomes as better jobs, income, and happiness. While this implies HE demonstrates multifaceted values incorporating economic benefits and non-pecuniary public good, their causal relationship and longitudinal trends remain empirically elusive. Using data from the General Social Survey over 50 years in the USA (1973–2022, N = 35,483), we conduct causal mediation analysis to examine …
The paradox of economic development and academic achievement: Evidence from Pisa for 77 economies over 20 years
Education, Skills, and Intergenerational Inequality in Status Attainment: Causal Mediation Analysis and Typology of 23 OECD Countries
Scholars have long investigated intergenerational inequality, with attention to the associations among social origins, education, and socio-economic destinations: the so-called OED triangle. Meanwhile, recent research highlights distinct roles of education and skills in status attainment. Extending these studies, this article proposes a new framework-the OESD quadrangle-that incorporates origin, education, skills, and destination to better unders…
Assessing educational inequality in high participation systems: The role of educational expansion and skills diffusion in comparative perspective
A vast literature shows parental education significantly affects children’s chance of attaining higher education even in high participation systems (HPS). Comparative studies further argue that the strength of this intergenerational transmission of education varies across countries. However, the mechanisms behind this cross-national heterogeneity remain elusive. Extending recent arguments on the “EE-SD model” and using the OECD data for over 32,0…
Heterogeneous effects of telework on job satisfaction across gender and employment precarity: Evidence from postpandemic Japan
Scholars have long investigated the impact of flexible work arrangements (FWA) on job satisfaction. However, in recent years, many workplaces have abruptly introduced telework as a form of FWA in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, only to later call workers back to offices as the pandemic subsides. This trend is particularly prevalent in societies with inflexible work cultures like Japan. Nevertheless, we know little about how telework affects jo…
Cross-national variation in the skills trap: Illuminating the Heterogeneous Economic Returns to High Cognitive Skills
Research argues possessing high skills is crucial for economic success. While such arguments are often evidenced by the average skills effect, we know little about its heterogeneity. From a comparative perspective, this article examines the heterogeneous effects of cognitive skills on earnings using the standardized dataset for Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Korea, Norway, and the United States. Propensity score (PS) matching analysis first…
Education and Multidimensional Inequalities in Contemporary Japan and Beyond: A Call for Longitudinal and Comparative Studies
This article reviews research on education and stratification in contemporary Japan. Particular attention is paid to (1) inequality in educational opportunities and outcomes, including learning experiences, attitudes, behaviors, achievement, and attainment; (2) educational gradients in multidimensional well‐being, such as labor market outcomes, health, family formation, and happiness; and (3) intergenerational inequality and mobility. The evidenc…
Gender inequality, well-being, and ill-being: A macro analysis of human and societal flourishing
Reassessing human capital and health capital over the life course: Causal mediation analysis of higher education, health, and wages
The wage return to education has long been explained by human capital theory. However, little is known about the mediating role of improved health, another key component of human capital, in connecting educational attainment and economic gains over the life course. This paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 in the United States to reassess the economic value of education from a life course perspective, focusing on th…
The Societal Determinants of Happiness and Unhappiness: Evidence From 152 Countries Over 15 Years
What makes people (un)happy? From the macro viewpoint, this study investigates the societal determinants of average life satisfaction (LS), the percentage of thriving/suffering people, and positive/negative affect collectively experienced in a society. Using the aggregate-level panel data for 152 economies over 15 years, country-fixed effects regressions reveal (1) the marginal effect of economic growth is likely to be smaller in affluent countri…
Low Income, Ill-being, and Gender Inequality: Explaining Cross-National Variation in the Gendered Risk of Suffering Among the Poor
Scholars have long investigated the positive link between income and well-being, including its gender difference. However, little is known about (1) how low income is linked to ill-being among women and men; and (2) how their association varies depending on societal-level gender (in)equality. Filling this knowledge gap is crucial not only for scholarship but for social policy to tackle income-based disparities of ill-being. In this study, using t…
Flexibility loss and worker well-being: What Happens to Job Satisfaction When Workers Lose Their Telework Usage
The association between flexible work arrangements (FWA) and worker well-being has been extensively investigated. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has generated a new phenomenon where workers return to inflexible workstyles after experiencing FWA. This article examines the consequence of this 'flexibility loss' with attention to telework and job satisfaction (JS). Using panel data collected by the Japanese government in 2020-2021, regressions and g…
Beyond the high participation systems model: Illuminating the heterogeneous patterns of higher education expansion and skills diffusion across 27 countries
Flexibly Maintained Inequality in Workplace Flexibility: Absolute and Relative Shifts in Telework Under Covid-19
Recent research argues that the availability of flexible work arrangements (FWA) is unequally distributed among workers. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic has drastically transformed the way we work, including the abrupt introduction of telework. However, we know little about how workers are stratified in telework usage under the global crisis and how it differs from pre-pandemic times. This study leverages the nation-wide longitudinal survey data…
Shedding new light on happiness inequality via unconditional quantile regression: The case of Japan under the Covid-19 crisis
Life satisfaction, skills diffusion, and the Japan Paradox: Toward multidisciplinary research on the skills trap
Recent research argues skills are the key to socio-economic success for individuals and societies, ranging from labor market outcomes to non-economic well-being. Drawing on these arguments, this study re-examines the linkage between the skills level of societies and people’s life satisfaction (LS), using the joint European Values Study–World Values Survey data for 48,930 individuals in 32 countries. Multilevel regressions confirm the positive ass…
Cultural capital and perception of teacher‐student relationships: Uncovering inequalities at schools in China
A long tradition in stratification research argues students with higher cultural capital are likely to be treated by their teachers as possessing the “right culture,” which positively affects their academic performance. Nevertheless, the literature has paid little attention to the role of students' perception in this process. Using two waves of the China Educational Panel Survey, we investigate how students' cultural capital affects their own und…
Beyond 'Imagined Meritocracy: Distinguishing the Relative Power of Education and Skills in Intergenerational Inequality
Scholars argue the dominant discourse of meritocracy legitimises intergenerational inequality and the winner-loser divide. However, is our society really meritocratic? If yes, the relative power of educational qualifications per se should be smaller than that of skills/abilities in the labour market. Using the standardised data in the United States, structural equation modelling shows (1) the contribution of family background to educational attai…
Does Education Make People Happy? Spotlighting the Overlooked Societal Condition
The association between education and subjective well-being has long been investigated by social scientists. However, prior studies have paid inadequate attention to the influence of societal-level educational expansion and skills diffusion. In this article, multilevel regression analyses, using internationally comparable data for over 48,000 individuals in 24 countries, detect the overall positive linkage between educational attainment and life …
Credential Inflation and Decredentialization: Re-examining the Mechanism of the Devaluation of Degrees
Sociologists have long used credential inflation theory to explain the devaluation of tertiary education degrees as the consequence of the excessive supply of educated personnel. However, the literature has inadequately examined two fundamental conditions: the combination of degrees/skills that individuals possess and the level of degrees. In this article, cross-country multilevel regressions reveal lower-level degrees (i.e. short-cycle tertiary)…
Educational Expansion, Skills Diffusion, and the Economic Value of Credentials and Skills
Examining the economic value of education has been a central research agenda of social scientists for decades. However, prior research inadequately accounts for the discrepancy between educational credentials and skills at both the individual and societal levels. In this article, I investigate the link between credentials, skills, and labor market outcomes against a background of societal-level educational expansion and skills diffusion. Using in…
Development and validation of a measure of intercultural adjustment potential in Japanese sojourners: The Intercultural Adjustment Potential Scale (Icaps)
Intercultural Encounters: The Management of Compliments by Japanese and Americans
Two types of inquiry were used to explore the norms governing the management of compliments in Japan and the United States. The first, a semistructured interview, revealed great differences in the frequency of complimenting behavior and in the hierarchy of attributes praised. Incidents from these interviews were used to construct a Complimentary Mode Questionnaire that was then administered to larger samples of Japanese and Americans. The resulti…
Educational Expansion, Skills Diffusion, and the Economic Value of Credentials and Skills
Examining the economic value of education has been a central research agenda of social scientists for decades. However, prior research inadequately accounts for the discrepancy between educational credentials and skills at both the individual and societal levels. In this article, I investigate the link between credentials, skills, and labor market outcomes against a background of societal-level educational expansion and skills diffusion. Using in…
Development and validation of a measure of intercultural adjustment potential in Japanese sojourners: The Intercultural Adjustment Potential Scale (Icaps)
Intercultural Encounters: The Management of Compliments by Japanese and Americans
Two types of inquiry were used to explore the norms governing the management of compliments in Japan and the United States. The first, a semistructured interview, revealed great differences in the frequency of complimenting behavior and in the hierarchy of attributes praised. Incidents from these interviews were used to construct a Complimentary Mode Questionnaire that was then administered to larger samples of Japanese and Americans. The resulti…
Credential Inflation and Decredentialization: Re-examining the Mechanism of the Devaluation of Degrees
Sociologists have long used credential inflation theory to explain the devaluation of tertiary education degrees as the consequence of the excessive supply of educated personnel. However, the literature has inadequately examined two fundamental conditions: the combination of degrees/skills that individuals possess and the level of degrees. In this article, cross-country multilevel regressions reveal lower-level degrees (i.e. short-cycle tertiary)…
Shedding new light on happiness inequality via unconditional quantile regression: The case of Japan under the Covid-19 crisis
Beyond 'Imagined Meritocracy: Distinguishing the Relative Power of Education and Skills in Intergenerational Inequality
Scholars argue the dominant discourse of meritocracy legitimises intergenerational inequality and the winner-loser divide. However, is our society really meritocratic? If yes, the relative power of educational qualifications per se should be smaller than that of skills/abilities in the labour market. Using the standardised data in the United States, structural equation modelling shows (1) the contribution of family background to educational attai…
Gender inequality, well-being, and ill-being: A macro analysis of human and societal flourishing
Life satisfaction, skills diffusion, and the Japan Paradox: Toward multidisciplinary research on the skills trap
Recent research argues skills are the key to socio-economic success for individuals and societies, ranging from labor market outcomes to non-economic well-being. Drawing on these arguments, this study re-examines the linkage between the skills level of societies and people’s life satisfaction (LS), using the joint European Values Study–World Values Survey data for 48,930 individuals in 32 countries. Multilevel regressions confirm the positive ass…
Cultural capital and perception of teacher‐student relationships: Uncovering inequalities at schools in China
A long tradition in stratification research argues students with higher cultural capital are likely to be treated by their teachers as possessing the “right culture,” which positively affects their academic performance. Nevertheless, the literature has paid little attention to the role of students' perception in this process. Using two waves of the China Educational Panel Survey, we investigate how students' cultural capital affects their own und…
Education and Multidimensional Inequalities in Contemporary Japan and Beyond: A Call for Longitudinal and Comparative Studies
This article reviews research on education and stratification in contemporary Japan. Particular attention is paid to (1) inequality in educational opportunities and outcomes, including learning experiences, attitudes, behaviors, achievement, and attainment; (2) educational gradients in multidimensional well‐being, such as labor market outcomes, health, family formation, and happiness; and (3) intergenerational inequality and mobility. The evidenc…
Low Income, Ill-being, and Gender Inequality: Explaining Cross-National Variation in the Gendered Risk of Suffering Among the Poor
Scholars have long investigated the positive link between income and well-being, including its gender difference. However, little is known about (1) how low income is linked to ill-being among women and men; and (2) how their association varies depending on societal-level gender (in)equality. Filling this knowledge gap is crucial not only for scholarship but for social policy to tackle income-based disparities of ill-being. In this study, using t…
Intercultural Encounters: The Management of Compliments by Japanese and Americans
Two types of inquiry were used to explore the norms governing the management of compliments in Japan and the United States. The first, a semistructured interview, revealed great differences in the frequency of complimenting behavior and in the hierarchy of attributes praised. Incidents from these interviews were used to construct a Complimentary Mode Questionnaire that was then administered to larger samples of Japanese and Americans. The resulti…
Development and validation of a measure of intercultural adjustment potential in Japanese sojourners: The Intercultural Adjustment Potential Scale (Icaps)
Educational Expansion, Skills Diffusion, and the Economic Value of Credentials and Skills
Examining the economic value of education has been a central research agenda of social scientists for decades. However, prior research inadequately accounts for the discrepancy between educational credentials and skills at both the individual and societal levels. In this article, I investigate the link between credentials, skills, and labor market outcomes against a background of societal-level educational expansion and skills diffusion. Using in…
Does Education Make People Happy? Spotlighting the Overlooked Societal Condition
The association between education and subjective well-being has long been investigated by social scientists. However, prior studies have paid inadequate attention to the influence of societal-level educational expansion and skills diffusion. In this article, multilevel regression analyses, using internationally comparable data for over 48,000 individuals in 24 countries, detect the overall positive linkage between educational attainment and life …
Credential Inflation and Decredentialization: Re-examining the Mechanism of the Devaluation of Degrees
Sociologists have long used credential inflation theory to explain the devaluation of tertiary education degrees as the consequence of the excessive supply of educated personnel. However, the literature has inadequately examined two fundamental conditions: the combination of degrees/skills that individuals possess and the level of degrees. In this article, cross-country multilevel regressions reveal lower-level degrees (i.e. short-cycle tertiary)…
Beyond the high participation systems model: Illuminating the heterogeneous patterns of higher education expansion and skills diffusion across 27 countries
Flexibly Maintained Inequality in Workplace Flexibility: Absolute and Relative Shifts in Telework Under Covid-19
Recent research argues that the availability of flexible work arrangements (FWA) is unequally distributed among workers. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic has drastically transformed the way we work, including the abrupt introduction of telework. However, we know little about how workers are stratified in telework usage under the global crisis and how it differs from pre-pandemic times. This study leverages the nation-wide longitudinal survey data…
Shedding new light on happiness inequality via unconditional quantile regression: The case of Japan under the Covid-19 crisis
Life satisfaction, skills diffusion, and the Japan Paradox: Toward multidisciplinary research on the skills trap
Recent research argues skills are the key to socio-economic success for individuals and societies, ranging from labor market outcomes to non-economic well-being. Drawing on these arguments, this study re-examines the linkage between the skills level of societies and people’s life satisfaction (LS), using the joint European Values Study–World Values Survey data for 48,930 individuals in 32 countries. Multilevel regressions confirm the positive ass…
Cultural capital and perception of teacher‐student relationships: Uncovering inequalities at schools in China
A long tradition in stratification research argues students with higher cultural capital are likely to be treated by their teachers as possessing the “right culture,” which positively affects their academic performance. Nevertheless, the literature has paid little attention to the role of students' perception in this process. Using two waves of the China Educational Panel Survey, we investigate how students' cultural capital affects their own und…
Beyond 'Imagined Meritocracy: Distinguishing the Relative Power of Education and Skills in Intergenerational Inequality
Scholars argue the dominant discourse of meritocracy legitimises intergenerational inequality and the winner-loser divide. However, is our society really meritocratic? If yes, the relative power of educational qualifications per se should be smaller than that of skills/abilities in the labour market. Using the standardised data in the United States, structural equation modelling shows (1) the contribution of family background to educational attai…
The Societal Determinants of Happiness and Unhappiness: Evidence From 152 Countries Over 15 Years
What makes people (un)happy? From the macro viewpoint, this study investigates the societal determinants of average life satisfaction (LS), the percentage of thriving/suffering people, and positive/negative affect collectively experienced in a society. Using the aggregate-level panel data for 152 economies over 15 years, country-fixed effects regressions reveal (1) the marginal effect of economic growth is likely to be smaller in affluent countri…
Low Income, Ill-being, and Gender Inequality: Explaining Cross-National Variation in the Gendered Risk of Suffering Among the Poor
Scholars have long investigated the positive link between income and well-being, including its gender difference. However, little is known about (1) how low income is linked to ill-being among women and men; and (2) how their association varies depending on societal-level gender (in)equality. Filling this knowledge gap is crucial not only for scholarship but for social policy to tackle income-based disparities of ill-being. In this study, using t…
Flexibility loss and worker well-being: What Happens to Job Satisfaction When Workers Lose Their Telework Usage
The association between flexible work arrangements (FWA) and worker well-being has been extensively investigated. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has generated a new phenomenon where workers return to inflexible workstyles after experiencing FWA. This article examines the consequence of this 'flexibility loss' with attention to telework and job satisfaction (JS). Using panel data collected by the Japanese government in 2020-2021, regressions and g…
Assessing educational inequality in high participation systems: The role of educational expansion and skills diffusion in comparative perspective
A vast literature shows parental education significantly affects children’s chance of attaining higher education even in high participation systems (HPS). Comparative studies further argue that the strength of this intergenerational transmission of education varies across countries. However, the mechanisms behind this cross-national heterogeneity remain elusive. Extending recent arguments on the “EE-SD model” and using the OECD data for over 32,0…
Heterogeneous effects of telework on job satisfaction across gender and employment precarity: Evidence from postpandemic Japan
Scholars have long investigated the impact of flexible work arrangements (FWA) on job satisfaction. However, in recent years, many workplaces have abruptly introduced telework as a form of FWA in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, only to later call workers back to offices as the pandemic subsides. This trend is particularly prevalent in societies with inflexible work cultures like Japan. Nevertheless, we know little about how telework affects jo…
Cross-national variation in the skills trap: Illuminating the Heterogeneous Economic Returns to High Cognitive Skills
Research argues possessing high skills is crucial for economic success. While such arguments are often evidenced by the average skills effect, we know little about its heterogeneity. From a comparative perspective, this article examines the heterogeneous effects of cognitive skills on earnings using the standardized dataset for Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Korea, Norway, and the United States. Propensity score (PS) matching analysis first…
Education and Multidimensional Inequalities in Contemporary Japan and Beyond: A Call for Longitudinal and Comparative Studies
This article reviews research on education and stratification in contemporary Japan. Particular attention is paid to (1) inequality in educational opportunities and outcomes, including learning experiences, attitudes, behaviors, achievement, and attainment; (2) educational gradients in multidimensional well‐being, such as labor market outcomes, health, family formation, and happiness; and (3) intergenerational inequality and mobility. The evidenc…
Gender inequality, well-being, and ill-being: A macro analysis of human and societal flourishing
Reassessing human capital and health capital over the life course: Causal mediation analysis of higher education, health, and wages
The wage return to education has long been explained by human capital theory. However, little is known about the mediating role of improved health, another key component of human capital, in connecting educational attainment and economic gains over the life course. This paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 in the United States to reassess the economic value of education from a life course perspective, focusing on th…
The shifting happiness return to higher education over 50 years: Causal mediation analysis of college completion, economic benefits, and happiness in the USA
Evidence shows higher education (HE) leads to such socio-economic outcomes as better jobs, income, and happiness. While this implies HE demonstrates multifaceted values incorporating economic benefits and non-pecuniary public good, their causal relationship and longitudinal trends remain empirically elusive. Using data from the General Social Survey over 50 years in the USA (1973–2022, N = 35,483), we conduct causal mediation analysis to examine …
The paradox of economic development and academic achievement: Evidence from Pisa for 77 economies over 20 years
Education, Skills, and Intergenerational Inequality in Status Attainment: Causal Mediation Analysis and Typology of 23 OECD Countries
Scholars have long investigated intergenerational inequality, with attention to the associations among social origins, education, and socio-economic destinations: the so-called OED triangle. Meanwhile, recent research highlights distinct roles of education and skills in status attainment. Extending these studies, this article proposes a new framework-the OESD quadrangle-that incorporates origin, education, skills, and destination to better unders…
Economics (17 works) · Psychology (17 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Demographic economics (11 works) · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies (10 works) · Economic growth (9 works) · Inequality (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Social science (9 works)