Jaejoon Woo

Driehaus College of BusinessEconomicsProfessorFacultyFull Time
Contact
jwoo1@depaul.edu(312) 362-5585
Office
1 E. Jackson Blvd. , DePaul Center 6218, Chicago, IL 60604

BIO

Academic Degrees

PhD, Economics, Harvard University
MA, Economics, Yonsei University
BA, Economics, Yonsei University

Biography

Jaejoon Woo is a Professor of Economics at the Driehaus College of Business. His distinguished professional career encompasses extensive experience conducting high-caliber economic research and analyzing global macro issues as well as market trends in Korea and Asia for top international organizations, a global investment bank, and academia.


From 2015 to 2017, he served as Chief Korea Economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, producing more than 145 market-oriented research reports on Korea and emerging Asia. His Asia economics team was ranked #2 and #3 globally in the Institutional Investor Survey in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
 

Prior to that, he was a Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC (2009–2014), where he worked on macro-fiscal issues during the global financial crisis and the Euro area sovereign debt crisis. His co-authored paper on public debt and growth attracted wide attention from policymakers, academia, and the media—including citations by ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet (August 27, 2010), The Economist, and Financial Times.

Earlier in his career, he worked as an Economist at the OECD in Paris (2000–2002; 2009). His work on firm dynamics and productivity was featured in The Economist (May 23, 2002).
 
His research interests include macroeconomics, growth and productivity, sovereign debt, fiscal policy, political economy, social polarization, inequality, international economic integration, Korea, and emerging Asia. He has published four books, six book chapters, and 30 papers. His work has 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.

As of July 1, 2025, his research papers have received over 4,408 citations according to Google scholar, contributing to a ranking in the Top 9% of economists worldwide on IDEAS/RePEc.

His research and commentary have been featured in The Economist, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Nikkei Asian Review, Yonhap News, Maeil Business Newspaper, Korea Times, and Edaily (Korea’s largest online news outlet).

In addition to DePaul, he has taught at Harvard University, Sciences Po (Paris), Helsinki School of Economics (now Aalto University), and in DePaul’s overseas MBA programs in Bahrain, the Czech Republic, and Taiwan.

He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Yonsei University in December 2021 and the Lawrence W. Ryan Distinguished Teaching Award (voted by the graduating undergraduate class) from the Driehaus College of Business in May 2025.

He currently serves as Topic Editor for the Journal of Risk and Financial Management (2021–present) and previously served as Associate Editor for the International Economic Journal (2010–2018). He was also a member of the International Finance Development Advisory Council of South Korea’s Ministry of Finance (2016–2018) and was elected Treasurer of the Korea-America Economic Association in 2007.

Courses & Syllabi

ECO 106 - Winter 2025​