About me

Professional positions:

Education:

Area of research:

New book is out now!

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

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

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.

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

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

From 2009 to 2014, I worked at the IMF (International Monetary Fund), 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 southern Europe. Among others, our paper on public debt and growth (joint with M. Kumar) attracted significant attention from the policy circles, academia, and news media. You can find more about my research activities at the IMF researcher site

Previously, I also held an Economist position twice at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) in Paris, France in 2000-2002, and 2009. You can download the papers that I co-authored with OECD colleagues at the Research Papers Link. Our paper on firm dynamics and productivity was covered in the Economic Focus section of The Economist (London-based weekly magazine) on May 23, 2002! Also, our work on the US health system was covered at the Financial Times on October 18, 2002. 

My research interest areas 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 and 37 articles so far (excluding the 145+ publications at BAML). In particular, 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 IMF, OECD, and BoK working paper series and books. My research papers have been cited more than 4037 times (Google scholar citations, as of 1/11/2024).

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.

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 received Distinguished Alumni Award (Excellence in Research and Education) from Yonsei University in December 2021. 

Currently, I am a Topic Editor of Journal of Risk and Financial Management (2021-present), an international peer-reviewed open access journal published by MDPI. I was an associate editor of International Economic Journal from 2010 to 2019, which is published for Korea International Economic Association by Routledge. Also, I was a member of the International Finance Development Council for Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Republic of Korea (2016-18) and was elected the Treasurer of the Korea-America Economic Association for year 2007. I received my B.A. and M.A. in Economics from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.

My Google Scholar Page (Link)


SELECTED PUBLISHED PAPERS

PUBLISHED BOOKS


Last updated, December 15, 2023