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Non-Resident Fellows
Email Randall S. Jones
About Randall S. Jones
Dr. Randall Jones is a non-resident scholar at the Korea Economic Institute and a Professional Fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Japanese Economy and Business. Previously, he served as the Senior Counsellor for East Asia and as Head of the Japan/Korea Desk at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris from 2002 until August 2019. During his 30 years at the OECD, Dr. Jones wrote all 16 OECD Economic Surveys of Korea and 15 OECD Economic Surveys of Japan, in addition to a number of other publications. In recognition for his work on Japan and Korea, Dr. Jones received the Decoration of the Order of the Rising Sun from the Government of Japan and the Sungnye Medal of the Order of Diplomatic Service Merit from the Government of Korea in 2018. Before joining the OECD in 1989, he spent three years in the U.S. government, serving at the Council of Economic Advisers and as an advisor in the State Department. Dr. Jones was also the vice-president of the Japan Economic Institute in Washington. Dr. Jones received a B.A. in Economics from Brigham Young University and a PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan in 1984. He lived in Korea from 1974 to 1976.
Join KEI and Asia Foundation for a discussion on North Korean refugee entrepreneurs and their experiences and challenges.
January 21, 2021
Randall S. Jones, Scott Snyder, Kathleen Stephens, Kwang Kim
Please join us for a discussion of the OECD’s 2020 Economic Survey of Korea, how the Korean economy is weathering COVID-19, and how COVID-19 will impact Korea’s longer term efforts to address issues related to population aging, low productivity, and inclusive growth.
October 6, 2020
Randall S. Jones, Vincent Keon, Christophe André, Jinwoan Beom, Mathilde Pak
On November 15th, fifteen countries signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest free trade agreement. It includes the ten ASEAN countries and some of their key trading partners – China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. With a combined 2.2 billion people, the RCEP member countries account for about 30% of the world’s…
December 10, 2020
By Randall S. Jones The 2020 OECD Economic Survey of Korea released last month stressed that Korea’s economic contraction in 2020 is relatively mild compared to other advanced countries. Nevertheless, it will leave durable scars that heighten the need to tackle the challenges of population aging and low productivity. To address these challenges, the Survey…
September 29, 2020
By Randall S. Jones The steep upward trend in housing prices has become a key social and economic issue in Korea. The failure of government policies to stabilize housing prices is blamed for a sharp fall in President Moon’s approval rating from 71% in early May, when he received credit for effective policies to stop…
September 14, 2020
By Randall S. Jones Following a 5.0 percent decline in the first quarter of 2020, real GDP fell 12.7 percent at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate (saar) in the second quarter (table below), the largest decrease since the Asian financial crisis more than two decades ago. Despite Korea’s success in limiting the spread of the coronavirus…
July 28, 2020
Korea is pursuing a bold strategy in an effort to achieve a paradigm shift that results in a fair economy. Some of its major initiatives – notably sharp increases in…
July 30, 2019
The tax burden in Korea—at 26 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) —was well below the average of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)…
May 25, 2011
Korea is in the midst of the most rapid demographic transition of any member country of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); the share of Korea’s population older…