About me

Professional positions:

• Associate Professor of Economics (tenured), Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, DePaul University, Chicago

• Chief Korea Economist, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Hong Kong, 2015-2017

• Senior Economist (with permanent staff status), IMF, Washington DC, 2009-2014

• Economist, OECD, Paris, France, 2000-2002 and 2009

Education:

• Ph.D. in Economics, Harvard University

• B.A. and M.A. in Economics, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea

Research:

• Area of interest: macroeconomics, growth, fiscal policy, public debt and deficit, political economy, inequality, international finance, Korea, EM Asia

• As of April 2, 2025, my research papers have received over 4,340 citations according to Google scholar, contributing to a ranking in the top 9% of economists worldwide on IDEAS/RePEc.

New book is available now!

Confronting South Korea's Next Crisis: Rigidities, Polarization, and Fear of Japanification (Oxford University Press, October 31, 2022. For more, click here.)

Foreign Affairs published a book review by Barry Eichengreen at UC Berkeley, January/February, 2023. 

Pacific Affairs published another by Sunwoong Kim at UW-Milwaukee, September 2024.

Most recent book presentation event was held in the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University on Nov 2, 2023. 

Also, presented, including at UC Berkeley, University of London, National Taiwan University, Academia Sinica, and Central Bank of Taiwan.

Short Bio

Currently, I hold a tenured professor position in the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University in Chicago.

From 2015 to 2017, I served as Chief Korea Economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, contributing over 145 market-oriented research reports on Korea and EM Asia. Our Asia economist team ranked #2 and #3 globally in the Institutional Investor Survey for 2016 and 2017, respectively. (For a list of my BAML publications, click here.) 

From 2009 to 2014, I worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC, where I held a Senior Economist position (with a permanent staff status). While at the Fund, I worked on macro-fiscal issues at the height of the global financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis in Euro area. Among others, our paper on public debt and growth (co-authored with M. Kumar) attracted significant attention from the policy circles, academia, and news media (including ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet’s speech on 8/27/2010, Financial Times, The Economist). You can find more about my research activities at the IMF researcher site. You can download the papers that I co-authored with IMF colleagues at the Research section. 

Previously, I also held an Economist position at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) in Paris, France, twice—first from 2000 to 2002, and again in 2009. Our paper on firm dynamics and productivity was featured in the Economic Focus section of The Economist (London-based weekly magazine) on May 23, 2002. 

My research interests include macroeconomics, growth and productivity, sovereign debt, fiscal policy, political economy, social polarization, inequality, international economic integration, Korea, and EM Asia. I have published 4 books, 6 book chapters, and 30 papers, including 17 refereed journal articles (excluding over 145 publications at BAML). My papers have been published in leading economics journals, such as Review of Economics and Statistics, European Economic Review, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Economica, Economic Inquiry, IMF Economic Review, and Fiscal Studies, as well as in the working paper series at the IMF, OECD, and Bank of Korea. 

My research and opinions have been featured and/or cited in the news media, such as The Economist, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Nikkei Asian Review, Yonhap News, MK (Maekyung), Korea Daily, Korea Times, and Edaily (Korea's largest online newspaper).

Besides DePaul, I taught at Harvard University, Helsinki School of Economics (Finland), Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (aka Sciences Po, Paris in France) and DePaul's Overseas MBA programs in Bahrain, Czech Republic, and Taiwan.

I was a recipient of Distinguished Alumni Award from Yonsei University in December 2021. 

Currently, I am serving as a Topic Editor for the Journal of Risk and Financial Management (2021–present), an international peer-reviewed open-access journal published by MDPI. From 2010 to 2018, I was an Associate Editor for the International Economic Journal, published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Korea International Economic Association. Additionally, I was a member of the International Finance Development Council for South Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance (2016–2018) and was elected Treasurer of the Korea-America Economic Association in 2007. I earned my B.A. and M.A. in Economics from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, and my Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.

My Google Scholar Page (Link)

SELECTED PUBLISHED PAPERS

• “Whither South Korea’s Economic Growth? Growth Deceleration, Structural Issue, and Risk of Stagnation,” Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, November 2024, 29(4): 2226-2260.

• “Financial Crises and Inequality: New Evidence from a Panel of 17 Advanced Economies,” Journal of Economic Asymmetries, November 2023 (published online August 26, 2023).

• "Revisiting Okun’s Law in South Korea: Asymmetries, Crises, and Structural Changes," Journal of Economic Asymmetries, June 2023 (published online February 13, 2023).

• "South Korea’s Coming Era of Stagnation: Can Seoul Save Its Economy From Japanese-Style Paralysis?" Foreign Affairs, May 17, 2023.

• "The Long-run Determinants of Redistribution: Evidence from a Panel of 47 Countries in 1967–2014," Empirical Economics, April 2023, 64(4): 1811-1860.

• “Does It Matter for the Economy to Have a Conservative or Liberal Government in Korea? Political Parties and Business Cycle in South Korea, 1998-2019,” Asian Journal of Political Science, December 2021, 29(3): 359-395.

• “Inequality, Redistribution, and Growth: What Do the Data Say about the Trade-off between Equity and Efficiency?" Empirical Economics, January 2020, 58(6): 2667-2707.

• “Distributional Consequences of Fiscal Adjustments: What Do the Data Say?” (with Elva Bova, Tidiane Kinda, Sophia Zhang), The IMF Economic Review, 65(2), 2017, pp.273-307.

• “The Puzzle of Persistently Negative Interest Rate-Growth Differentials: Financial Repression or Income Catch-up,” (with Julio Escolano, Anna Shabunina), Fiscal Studies, 38(2), June 2017, pp.179-217. Lead article.

• “Public Debt and Growth,” (with Manmohan Kumar), Economica, 82(328), October 2015, pp. 705-739.

• “Reassessing the Role and Modalities of Fiscal Policy in Advanced Economies,” (with Nathaniel Arnold, Mark de Broeck, and others), The IMF Policy Paper, September 2013.

• “Technological Upgrading in China and India: What Do We Know?” The OECD Development Center Working Paper, No. 308, January 2012.

• “Growth, Income Distribution, and Fiscal Policy Volatility.” The Journal of Development Economics 96(2), pp. 289-313, November 2011. The 11th most downloaded article in Journal of Development Economics in 2011.

• “Why Do More Polarized Countries Run More Pro-cyclical Fiscal Policy?” The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 91, No. 4, November 2009, 850-870.

• “Productivity Growth and Technological Diffusion through Foreign Direct Investment.” Economic Inquiry, Vol. 47, No. 2, April 2009, pp. 226-248.

• “Social Polarization, Fiscal Instability and Growth.” The European Economic Review, Vol. 49, No. 6, August 2005, pp. 1451-1477.

• “Social Polarization, Industrialization, and Fiscal Instability: Theory and Evidence.” The Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 72, No. 1, October 2003, pp. 223-252.

• “Economic, Political, and Institutional Determinants of Public Deficits.” The Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 87, No. 3, March 2003, pp. 387-426. Lead article. The 6th most requested article in Journal of Public Economics in 2003.

• “The Role of Policy and Institutions on Productivity and Firm Dynamics.” (with Stefano Scarpetta, Phil Hemmings and Thierry Tressel), The OECD Economics Department Working Paper, No. 329, April 2002. Covered in the Economics Focus section of The Economist (a London-based weekly magazine), May 25, 2002.

PUBLISHED BOOKS

• Confronting South Korea's Next Crisis: Rigidities, Polarization, and Fear of Japanification, Oxford University Press, October, 2022.

• Fiscal Monitor: Taxing times. (with Luc Eyraud, Marialuz Badia, Priscilla Muthoora, and others at the IMF), International Monetary Fund: Washington , DC, October 2013.

• The Political Economy of Fiscal Policy: Public Deficits, Volatility, and Growth. (No. 570, Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems Series), Springer-Verlag,Berlin; New York, January 2006.

• The OECD Economic Survey of the United States. (co-authored with Hannes Suppanz, Michael Kiley, Peter Jarret and Elizabeth Docteur), Vol. 2002/18, OECD, Paris, November 2002.

Last updated, September 9, 2024