Academic Degrees
PhD, Economics, Harvard University, 1999
MA, Economics, Yonsei University, 1992
BA, Economics, Yonsei University, 1990
Biography
Jaejoon Woo is an associate professor of economics in the Driehaus College of Business.
Woo served as chief Korea economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch from 2015 to 2017, and has published more than 145 market-oriented research notes on Korea and Emerging Markets in Asia. His Asia economist team attained the No. 2 and No. 3 top global spots in the Institutional Investor Survey for 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Previously, he was a senior economist (with permanent staff status) at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., 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 attracted significant attention from the policy circles, academia and news media, and was cited by 1149 other research papers. Also, he previously 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 covered in the Economic Focus section of The Economist (a London-based weekly magazine) 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 and Korea. His papers have been published in leading economics journals, such as the 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. His latest book on the South Korean economy (published by the Oxford University Press) is forthcoming in early 2022.
His opinions and research papers have been featured and/or cited in the news media, including The Economist, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Nikkei Asian Review, Korea Daily, and Korea Times.
Currently, Woo is a topic editor of Journal of Risk and Financial Management (since 2021). He was an associate editor of International Economic Journal from 2010-2018. He was also a member of the International Finance Development Council for Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Republic of Korea in 2016-2018.
Besides DePaul, Woo has taught at Harvard, Helsinki School of Economics (Finland), Sciences Po (France), and DePaul’s overseas MBA programs in Bahrain, Czech Republic and Taiwan.
He received his bachelor's degree in economics from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, and PhD in economics from Harvard University.
Courses & Syllabi
ECO 106 - Fall 2021