Dr. Jieun Choi is an economist with expertise on international economics (growth, trade, FDI) and industrial policy (productivity, R&D, regulations for business, disruptive technologies).

Currently, she works as Senior Economist within the World Bank’s Office of the Chief Economist, Africa region, where she focuses on the digital economy, the future of jobs, and global value chains and market structure for ICT infrastructure. Dr. Choi has advised the policy makers of 20+ countries, at the highest levels of Government, in Europe, Africa and Asia for more than 15 years. Previously, at the World Bank, she supported transitional economies in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region for regional integration and investment climates. While at the African Development Bank, she managed investment and policy support projects in sub-Saharan African countries and worked as a country economist for Egypt throughout the 2011 Arab Spring where she supported for the country's transition. While at Samsung Electronics, she oversaw the implementation of telecommunication infrastructure projects in China and Vietnam and analyzed the governments’ ICT licensing policies. Throughout her carriers, she has worked with governments, international organizations, and private sectors on policies and projects to boost growth, competitiveness and jobs.

With her passion for research and her hands-on experience in designing and implementing economic policies and development projects, from fragile states to high income countries in multiple regions, Dr. Choi will support the TMCD in advancing its interdisciplinary research agenda, by applying the most relevant frameworks and methods to find empirical evidence in real country cases; and connecting the latest academic findings to practical policy recommendations. She holds a doctorate (DPhil) from Oxford and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and International Development (MPA/ID) from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

See below for her recent research and visit www.jieunchoi.org for her latest work.

BOOKS

• A Continent-wide Digital Economy for Africa: Opportunities and Challenges for More Productive and Inclusive Growth, World Bank, Washington DC (on-going, with Mark Dutz and Moussa Blimpo)
• The Future of Work in Africa: A Companion to the World Development Report 2019 on the Changing Nature of Work, World Bank, Washington DC (with Mark Dutz and Zainap Usman).
• Competitiveness of the Kyrgyz Economy in the Wake of Accession to the Eurasian Customs Union, World Bank, Washington DC, 2016 (Russian version is available here)
• Industrial Policy in Senegal: Then and Now, Chapter In Manufacturing Transformation, edited by Carol Newman, Rand, John, Shimeles, Abebe, Söderbom, Måns, Tarp, Finn, and Page, John., Oxford University Press (with M. Maurel and F. Cisse), 2016 DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198776987.003.0007
• Comparative study for the structural transformation and export policies in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and South Korea, 2011, African Development Bank, Tunis, Tunisia (with Ricardo Hausmann and others), 2011

ARTICLES

• Economic and trade effects of Albania’s trade agreements with CEFTA members (with A. Minondo), Post-Communist Economies, 1-13., 2019
• A test of the Alchian--Allen conjecture with transaction-level trade data (with A. Minondo), Applied Economics Letters (forthcoming).
• Do Government Incentives to Promote R&D and Increase Private R&D Investment? World Bank Research Observer (forthcoming). doi: 10.1093/wbro
• FDI and Firms’ Markups and Productivity in the Service Sector (invited to revise and re-submit at Industrial and Corporate Change)
• Bribes vs. Taxes: Market Structure and Incentives (with F.Amodio, G. De Giorgi, and A.Rahmanm, on-going), IZA Discussion Paper No. 11668. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3217484
• How market competition influences firms’ participation into Global Value Chains? (with E. Fukase and A. Zeufack, on-going)
• Productivity Convergence and Learning by Exporting, Revised & Resubmit.
• Create or Buy? Innovation Outsourcing and Firm Productivity, World Bank Policy Working Paper N° 8121, World Bank, 2017
• Do Firms Learn by Exporting or Learn to Export, Evidence from Senegal, Working Paper N° 191, African Development Bank, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UN University- WIDER) 2015/057 (with F.Cisse), 2015
• Promoting Trade under the Financial Crisis: Lessons from South Korea, Korea Policy Review, 2009

BLOGS

• The Future of Jobs and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Business as Usual for Unusual Business, World Bank, 2018
• Feedback rating to decrease bribery: Evidence from the Kyrgyz Republic, VoxDev, 2018 (with F.Amodio, G. De Giorgi, and A.Rahmanm)
• The costs of not being recognized as a country: The case of Kosovo, Brookings Institute, 2017