Keun Lee is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Seoul National University, as well as the Fellow of the CIFAR (Canada), the President Elect of the Korean Economic Association, and the Chairman of the Center for Economic Catch-up. He is also an editor of Research Policy, and associate editor of Industrial and Corporate China. He is the winner of the 2014 Schumpeter Prize for his monograph on Schumpeterian Analysis of Economic Catch-up (2013 Cambridge Univ. Press), and also the 2019 Kapp Prize by EAEPE. He is also awarded the title of EBES Fellow of the Year 2023 by the EBES. He write regularly for Project Syndicate.

Previously, He served as the Vice-chairman of the National Economic Advisory Council for the chair and President of Korea, also as the President of the International Schumpeter Society (2016-18), as a member of the Committee for Development Policy of UN (2013-18), and as a GFC member of the World Economic Forum (2016-19). He obtained Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. His total citations received is about 14,400 with H-index of 55 and I-10 index of 157 (Google Scholar)

Research and Publications

Lee, J. and Lee, K. (2025) What “Causes” Income Inequality? Technological Innovation versus Financialization. Asian Economic Papers, 24(2), pp.87-124.

Lee, K. (2025) 695 Conditions for Success of Green Industrial Policy. In The Oxford Handbook on the Greening of Economic Development (pp. 695-707). Oxford University Press.  

Lee, K., Álvarez, I. and Valarezo, Á. (2025) Global value chains, structural change and growth dynamics in South Korea and Spain: Costs and benefits of globalization. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.

Lee, K., Shin, H.C. and Lee, J. (2025) From Catch-Up to Convergence? Transformation of Capitalism in South Korea. In Neoliberalization of South Korea: Economic Restructuring, Social Precarity, and Post-Developmental Democracy (pp. 113-137). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.  

Chang, K.S., Kim, S.K. and Lee, K. (2025) Introduction: Critical Issues and Debates in South Korea’s Neoliberalization. In Neoliberalization of South Korea: Economic Restructuring, Social Precarity, and Post-Developmental Democracy (pp. 1-13). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.

Xin, S. and Lee, K. (2025) Big businesses versus institutions for entrepreneurship: new firm creation and growth in China. Small Business Economics, pp.1-33.  

Lee, K. (2024) Is IPR a Facilitator of, or a Barrier to, Catch-Up by Latecomers?. intellectual property, innovation and economic inequality, p.106.

Wong, C.Y., Yeung, H.W.C., Huang, S., Song, J. and Lee, K. (2024) Geopolitics and the changing landscape of global value chains and competition in the global semiconductor industry: Rivalry and catch-up in chip manufacturing in East Asia. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 209, p.123749.

Chang, S., Kim, H., Song, J. and Lee, K. (2024) Dynamics of imitation versus innovation in technological leadership change: Latecomers’ catch-up strategies in diverse technological regimes. Research Policy, 53(9), p.105056.  

Lee, K. (2024) Possibility of Leapfrogging by China in Semiconductor. In Technological Revolution and New Driving Forces for Global Sustainable Development: Collected Wisdom of International Schumpeter Society (pp. 45-52). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.

Lee, K., Kim, J. and Kim, J. (2024) National Innovation System of India in a Comparative Perspective India versus China, Germany, Korea and Brazil. Economic and Political Weekly, 59(34), pp.72-79.

Lee, J. and Lee, K. (2024) Decoupling of functional and household income distribution by economic growth: new findings from analysing the three‐way growth‐equity nexus. Journal of International Development, 36(5), pp.2270-2299.  

Lee, K. (2024) Between Two Economic Traps: Did China Peak in 2021?.

Lee, K. and Kim, D.K. (2024) Compressed development, decompression, and diverging convergence in South Korea: which varieties of capitalism in contemporary Korea?. Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, 5(1), pp.173-200. 

VuPhu, T., Lee, K. and Park, D. (2024) Several Modes of Digitalisation of Value Chains and Their Effects on Firm Behaviour and Performance: Case Studies of Apparel and Video Game Industries. Global Economic Review, 53(2), pp.116-149.

Lee, K. (2024) Economics of technology cycle time (TCT) and catch-up by latecomers: Micro-, meso-, and macro-analyses and implications. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 34(2), pp.319-349.  

Lee, K. (2024) Innovation–Development Detours for Latecomers: Managing Global-Local Interfaces in the De-Globalization Era. Cambridge University Press.

Lee, K. (2024) The Four Major Forms of IPRs, Innovation and Economic Development by Latecomers: Patents, Utility Models, Trademarks, and Industrial Designs.  

Lee, K. (2024) Comment on" The Impact of Foundational AI on International Trade, Services and Supply Chains in Asia". Asian Economic Policy Review, 19(1).