Short Bio

Jaejoon Woo holds a tenured professor position in the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University in Chicago.

From 2015 to 2017, he served as Chief Korea Economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) in Hong Kong. He published over 145 market-oriented research notes on Korea and EM Asia. His Asia economist team attained the global top #2 and #3 spot in Institutional Investor Survey for 2016 and 2017, respectively.

From 2009 to 2014, he was Senior Economist (with permanent staff status) at the IMF (International Monetary Fund), Washington DC, where he worked on macro-fiscal issues at the height of the global financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. Among others, his paper on public debt and growth (joint with M. Kumar) attracted significant attention from the policy circles, academia, and news media. Previously, he also held an Economist position twice at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) in Paris, France in 2000-2002, and 2009. His paper (joint with Scarpetta, Hemmings and Tressel) on firm dynamics and productivity was featured in the Economic Focus section of The Economist on May 23, 2002.

His research areas include: macroeconomics, growth and productivity, sovereign debt and fiscal policy, political economy, social polarization, inequality, international economic integration, Korea and EM Asia. He published 4 books, 6 book chapters, and 30 papers including 17 refereed journal articles so far (excluding the 145+ publications at BAML). His papers have been published in leading peer-reviewed economics journals, such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Public Economics, European Economic Review, Economica, Journal of Development Economics, Economic Inquiry, IMF Economic Review, and Fiscal Studies, as well as in the IMF, OECD, and BoK working paper series and books. As of July 31, 2024, his research papers have received over 4200 citations according to Google scholar, contributing to a ranking in the top 10% of economists worldwide on IDEAS/RePEc.

His research papers and opinions have been featured and/or cited in the news media, such as The Economist (London-based weekly magazine), Financial Times, Bloomberg, Nikkei Asian Review, Yonhap News, MK (Maekyung), Korea Daily, Korea Times, and Edaily.

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

He is currently a Topic Editor of Journal of Risk and Financial Management (since 2021). He was an associate editor of International Economic Journal from 2010-2018, which is published for Korea International Economic Association by Taylor & Francis. Also, he was a member of the International Finance Development Advisory Council for Ministry of Strategy and Finance of South Korea in 2016-2018. He was elected Treasurer of Korea-America Economic Association in 2007.

He received his B.A. in Economics from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.

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