Changkeun Lee | 이창근

I study American economic history with a focus on industrial dynamics, labor reallocation, and policy response—particularly during the Great Depression—seeking to understand how structural shocks reshape firm behavior and the organization of work over time.

📄 Academic Research

Representative Works:

• 🛠️ “Job Reallocation during the Great Depression: Testing the Cleansing Hypothesis"
• 🛠️ Plant Closure and Reallocation Behaviors of the U.S. Auto Firms during the Great Depression”
• 🛠️ ”Wage Rigidity During the Great Depression: Plant-Level Evidence,” [link]
• Manufacturing Growth and Structural Change in American Economic History, in Oxford Handbook of American Economic History, Oxford University Press, 2018. 🔗 [link] 👥 Paul W. Rhode

📊 Policy Research

Representative Works:

🗣️ Selected Outreach Activities

🎙️ Talks & Lectures on Global Economic History

• Sejong City Library, May 2024.
• Economics for Teachers, KDI, January 2019-present

🖼️ Programs & Curation

I examine how technological change—particularly automation, smartification, and AI adoption—reshapes labor demand, workplace well-being, and the structure of employment. My work combines empirical research and policy evaluation to understand how firms adapt, who bears the costs of change, and how public intervention can shape more equitable outcomes.

📄 Academic Research

Representative Works:

• ”How will automation reshape worker well-being? Evidence from a highly automated economy,” Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2025 👥 Olivia Hye Kim, Hwanwoong Lee 🔗 [link]
• ”Work-from-Home in Korea: Expansion, Persistence, and Inequality?,” Journal of the Korean Official Statistics, 2025 👥 Sehoon Kim, Jiye Kang, Haeun Kim, Olivia Hye Kim, Seolyeon Moon, Hyuk An, Soomin Lim, and Jisu Jung 🔗 [link]
• Unions and Automation Risk: Who Bears the Cost of Automation?, B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, 23(3): 843-851, 2023. 👥 Olivia Hye Kim

📊 Policy Research

Representative Works:

• 🇰🇷 Program Evaluation: Smart Factory, Ministry of Strategy and Finance, 2021 👥 Taewoo Chang

→ Drawing on my policy research findings, I evaluated the efficiency and effectiveness of the “Smart Factory” subsidy program and recommended a strategic shift—from supporting a large number of factories to prioritizing the diffusion of best practices.

• 🇰🇷 Smart Factories: Economic Impacts and Policy Implications, KDI, 2019. 🔗 [link] [English summary] 👥 Minho Kim, Sunghoon Chung

Smart Policies, for Smart Factories

KDI looked into smart factories which are at the center of manufacturing innovation. How does a factory become ‘smart?’, and does it affect jobs? ● Author - Minho Kim, Fellow at KDI - Sunghoon Chung, Fellow at KDI - Changkeun Lee, Professor at Yonsei University ● Go to related report - Smart Policies for Smart Factories (https://bit.ly/2KONswu) ● KDI Website - http://www.kdi.re.kr/kdi_eng/main/



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→ While advancing intelligent and connected factories has been a top policy priority in Korea since the mid-2010s, concerns about potential job losses have also emerged. I investigated how the employment effects of smartification may differ from those of automation.

🗣️ Selected Outreach Activities

I explore how Korea’s demographic, fiscal, and energy transitions shape public preferences and policy responses—combining empirical research and direct policy advising to understand social cleavages, middle-class identity, and the institutional conditions for sustainable reform.

📄 Academic Research

Representative Works:

• 🛠️ ”Leaving Someone Behind: Coal Phase-Out in South Korea,” [link] 👥 Sehoon Kim, Yeong Jae Kim, Jinseong Park, Sunjoo Park
• Ideology and Policy Preferences in Synthetic Data: The Potential of LLMs for Public Opinion Analysis, Media and Communication, 2025 👥 Keyeun Lee, Suh-hee Choim and Jaehyuk Park
• Job reallocation in Korean manufacturing: 1984–2014, Journal of Asian Economics, 74: 101295, 2021. 🔗 [link] 👥 Cheongyeon Won

📊 Policy Research

Representative Works:

• 🇰🇷 Koreans’ Policy Preference, 2024-2025, 2025. 🔗 [link] 👥 Young Jae Kim, Jinseong Park, Sehoon Kim, Haeun Kim, Soomin LIm
• 🇰🇷 Who is the Middle Class in Korea?, KDI, 2024. 🔗 [link] [▶️ Youtube] [▶️ Youtube] 👥 Sookyeong Hwang

→ This report highlights the mismatch between Korea’s objective and subjective middle class, and emphasizes the importance of understanding the layered nature and policy implications of this divergence.

• 🇰🇷 Opinion Polarization in Korea, KDI, 2019. 🔗 [link] 👥 Woonhyuk Lim, Seeun Jung, Dongook Choi

→ Using survey data, I examine trends in opinion polarization in Korea and find increasing issue-based divergence since the 2010s, while overall ideological distribution remains stable.

🗣️ Selected Outreach Activities

🎙️ Talks & Lectures

🖼️ Programs & Curation

Projects where I organized or collaborated on Korea’s public policy and public opinion.

I approach cultural policy not just as a technical question of regulation or funding, but as a broader reflection of how societies define value, identity, and participation.

📄 Academic Research

Representative Works:

• 🛠️ ”The Division of Labour in Webtoon Production: How Team-Based and Corporate Strategies Shape Viewership and Quality,” 👥 Seungjoo Kim
• 🇰🇷 Over-the-Top Original Content and Platform Choice: A Survey-based Empirical Study, 정보통신정책연구, 31(3): 89-115. [link] 👥 Sohyun Park, Jihye Park

📊 Policy Research

Representative Works:

• 🇰🇷 Market Structure and Competitiveness of the K-Content Industry: Focus on Webtoons, Korea Development Institute (KDI), 2024. 🔗 [link] 👥 Seungjoo Kim

→ Analysis of structural changes in Korea’s webtoon ecosystem and the impact of AI on creators.

• 🇰🇷 Evaluation of Public Funding Programs for Culture and the Arts, Ministry of Economy and Finance, 2022. 👥 Dongwook Choi, Dohyung Kim, Yongkwan Lee

→ Assesses Korea’s cultural subsidy programs and proposes strategies for more targeted investment.

• 🇰🇷 Consumer-Oriented Cultural Industry Policy, in A Study on Service Industry Development and Job Creation, Korea Development Institute (KDI), 2019. 🔗 [link] [▶️ Youtube] 👥 Jongkwan Lee, Yoonji Kim, Yongkwan Lee

→ Proposes introduction of youth culture pass, promotion of infrastructure, and private participation.

🗣️ Selected Outreach Activities

🎙️ Talks & Lectures

• “Unraveling the Korean Webtoon Industry: Structure, Economics, and Emerging Challenges,” May 15, 2025 at INALCO, France 🔗 [link]
• NEXT Academy 2024, KOFICE, December 19, 2024 at ART Place.
• 🇰🇷 “Toward a Cultural State: Beyond the Dichotomy of Market and Government, Universality and Particularity,” National Strategy Colloquium, National Assembly Library, April 25, 2023 🔗 [▶️ Youtube]

🖼️ Programs & Curation

Projects where I organized or collaborated on cultural programs and artist engagement.

• 🎨 Shepard Fairey at KDI School - Library Exhibition, July 2025.
• 🎨 M. Chat at KDI School - Live Painting & Artist Dialogue, March 1, 2024 🔗 [▶️ Youtube]

I approach global development through the lens of economic history, grounded in Korea’s own development experience—not only as a subject of academic inquiry, but as a basis for advising policy, shaping agendas, and rethinking the fundamental purpose of cooperation beyond aid delivery.

📄 Academic Research

Representative Works:

• “Paying It Forward? - Vaccine Provision and Generalized Reciprocity in Foreign Policy Opinion,” accepted at Public Opinion Quarterly, accepted, 2025. 👥 Joonbum Bae
• 🛠️ ”Global Investment and Household Labor Supply: Evidence from Samsung's Entry in Vietnam,” working paper 🔗 [link] 👥 Dung Thi Kim Dang, David Sungho Park

📊 Policy Research

Representative Works:

• 🛠️ 🇰🇷 Evaluation of Korea’s Priority Partner Country Framework, Office for Government Policy Coordination 👥 Minyoung Seo, Wonhyuk Lim

→ Evaluates the third phase of Korea’s priority partner strategy, assessing performance and suggesting directions for future country selection and engagement.

• 🇰🇷 Study on Latin American Countries’ Green Energy Industries and Korea’s Cooperation Strategies, KIEP, 2024. 🔗 [link] 👥 Young Jae Kim, Minyoung Seo, Hyeyoung Woo

→ Analyzes the green energy sectors of Chile, Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, and proposes cooperation strategies focused on solar, wind, and hydrogen industries.

• 🇰🇷 Strategy for Korea’s Development Cooperation with the ASEAN Region, Office for Government Policy Coordination, 2023 🔗 [link] 👥 Minyoung Seo, David Sungho Park

→ Proposes strategic initiatives for Korea–ASEAN cooperation, emphasizing alignment with ASEAN priorities and data-driven identification of development bottlenecks.

🗣️ Selected Outreach Activities

🎙️ Talks & Lectures

• Seoul ODA International Conference, KOICA, 2024. 🔗 [link] 🎤 Moderator

🖼️ Programs & Curation

Projects where I organized or collaborated on global development cooperation

• KDI School Roundtable on Development Cooperation, 2025, Busan, Korea.

KDIS-Europe Summer School:

• As part of this initiative, I organized KDIS–Europe Summer Schools on political polarization and the economic development of Asia, fostering cross-regional academic dialogue and experiential learning.
• 📸 2024 KOREA-EU Summer School on Economic Development
• KDIS-Europe Summer School 2025 on Political Polarization 🇰🇷🇪🇺

Development Day Series:

• I led the design and implementation of a knowledge-sharing and career development platform for part-time students, inviting practitioners to foster dialogue between policy theory and real-world application. This initiative supported the School’s mission to bridge academic learning with practical policy engagement.
🙌Development Day