Hyungseok Joo is an Associate Professor in the College of International Studies and in the Graduate School of International Studies at Korea University.

His field of research mainly focuses on Macroeconomics, International Finance/Macro, and Money and Banking. More specifically, he is interested in topics such as Sovereign Debt and Default, Debt Restructuring and Debt Relief, Government Debt Management, Fiscal Consolidation and Austerity, Monetary and Fiscal policy, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and International Capital Flow, Geoeconomics, and Quantitative Macro and Computational Economics, etc.

Hyungseok Joo graduated from the Yonsei University in South Korea and received a Ph.D. in Economics from Boston University in 2015. Prior to joining Korea University in 2025, he spent years of research and teaching at Wayne State University, USA, and University of Surrey, UK, as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor).

Education

Boston University

Ph.D., Economics, October 2015

Dissertation: "Essays on Sovereign Debt and Default."

Academic Advisor: Simon Gilchrist

Committee Members: Francois Gourio, Alisdair Mckay

University of Wisconsin

M.A., Economics, May 2007

Yonsei University

B.A., Economics (Major), Mathematics (Minor), August 2004

Professional Experiences

Korea University, South Korea

Associate Professor, Division of International Studies, September 2025 -

University of Surrey, UK

Lecturer (Assistant Professor), School of Economics, May 2019-August 2025

Deputy Director, Centre for International Macroeconomics Studies, Sep 2022-August 2025

Wayne State University, USA

Lecturer, Department of Economics, August 2015-May 2019

For more information, please see the personal webpage below.

https://sites.google.com/site/hsjoo214/home

Peer-Reviewed Publications

“Sovereign Debt Restructurings: Delays in Renegotiation and Risk-Averse Creditors,” (with Tamon Asonuma), 2020, Journal of the European Economic Association, Vol 18(5):2394-2440.

“Sovereign Debt Restructurings: Survey on Concepts, Trends, Empirics and Theory” (with Tamon Asonuma and Akira Sasarara), 2022, Public Policy Review, Vol. 18(1), pp 1 -16.

“Effects of Information Quality on Signaling Through Sovereign Debt Issuance,” (with Yoon-Jin Lee and Young-Ro Yoon), 2023, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol 207, pp279-304.

“Sovereign Default and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Transactions: Evidence from Argentina,” (with Moonhee Cho), 2024, Economics Letters, Vol 234, 111940.

Research Interests

Sovereign Debt and Default, Debt Restructuring and Debt Relief, Government Debt Management, Fiscal Consolidation and Austerity, Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and International Capital Flow, Quantitative Macroeconomics and Computational Economics, Geoeconomics, Emerging and Developing Countries, European and Latin American Economy.

“Sovereign Defaults and Public Investment (Capital),” (with Tamon Asonuma),

“Fiscal Consolidation and Sovereign Debt Restructurings,” (with Tamon Asonuma),

“Fiscal Policy Analysis of Sovereign Debt,” (with Tamon Asonuma and Jing Zhang),

“A Fiscal Policy Mandate in a DSGE Model,” (with Paul Levine and Son T. Pham),

“News, Fiscal Policy, and Sovereign Default Risk,”

“Sovereign Debt Issuance signals Information Quality,” (with Yoon-Jin Lee and Young-Ro Yoon),

“Heterogenous Sovereign Debt Crisis Costs,” (with Tamon Asonuma and Dilek Sevinc)

“Political Uncertainty and Crisis Resolution: Theory and Evidence on Sovereign Defaults,” (with Tamon Asonuma and Christoph Trebesch)

“Serial Sovereign Debt Restructurings,” (with Tamon Asonuma, Hasan Cetik, Chang He)

“Fiscal Policy and Bounded Rationality,” (with Sahil Ravgotra)

“Aging and Sovereign Debt Default Risk,” (with Seungmin Kang)

“Official Debt Default,” (with Oisikha Chakraborty)

Korea University

- Macroeconomics (graduate)

- Korean Economy in a Globalized World (undergraduate)

University of Surrey

- International Finance (MSc)

- Topics in Macroeconomic Modelling (PhD)

- Foundations of Macroeconomics (MA)

- International Finance and Developing Economics (MA/MSc)

- Intermediate Macroeconomics 1 (undergraduate)

Wayne State University

- Macroeconomics Theory I (PhD)

- Macroeconomics Theory II (PhD)

- Econometric Analysis (MA)

- Intermediate Macroeconomics (undergraduate)

- Principle of Macroeconomics (undergraduate)

Boston University

- Intermediate Macroeconomics (undergraduate)

Short Courses/Summer School

Centre for International Macroeconomics Studies (CIMS)

- Advanced Topics in DSGE Modelling: Applied Dynamic Programming and Global Solution Algorithms

- Topics in Sovereign Debt and Default

- Classical Heterogeneous Agents Models

Korea Development Institute (KDI)

- Government Debt Management and Default

Kyoto University

- International Finance and Macroeconomics (MA/PhD)