JaeBin  Ahn (안재빈)

Welcome to my research webpage.

 I am a Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that, I was an  Associate Professor in Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University. 

My research interests lie in the fields of International Trade, Banking and Finance, International Finance, and Growth & Development.

Email: jaebin.ahn@gmail.com. Google Scholar Page; Academic Tree Page; IMF Researcher Page; LinkedIn Page

Working Papers:

“The Role of Corporate Cash Holdings in the Transmission of Monetary Policy Tightening ”, (with Euihyun Bae and Jing Zhou).  Revision requested at Macroeconomic Dynamics. media coverage: The Economist.

“Knowledge Diffusion through FDI: Worldwide Firm-level Evidence”, (with Chan Kim, Nan Li, and Andrea Manera), Revision requested at Journal of International Economics.

“Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity, Fixed Exchange Rate, and Unemployment: Evidence from a Quasi Natural Experiment”, (with Jaerim Choi and Ivan  Rivadeneyra ).  

“Underperformance of the Service Sector in Korea: Does the Composition of the Workforce Matter?”, (with Sang-yoon Song).  A summary of the paper in BoK Issue Note is available here (in Korean).  media coverage: Maekyung (in Korean); e-daily (in Korean); Yonhap (in Korean)

“Assessing the Bank Lending Channel of Macroprudential Policy: Evidence from the Loan-to-Deposit Ratio Regulation in Korea”, (with Young-ju Kim, and Hyunjoon Lim) Revision requested at Journal of Banking and Finance.

“Bilateral Trade Balances and Global Value Chains”, (with Emine Boz, Maurice Obstfeld and Petia Topalova).  

“Innovation and Corporate Cash Holdings in the Era of Globalization?”, (with Konrad Adler and Mai Dao). This draft: December 2018. 

“Understanding Trade Finance: Theory and Evidence from Transaction-level Data”, This draft: August 2015. 

Publications:

“Productivity Spillovers from FDI: A Firm-level Cross-country Analysis”, (with Shekhar Aiyar and Andrea Presbitero), accepted at The World Economy. 

“Greenflation or Greensulation? The Case of Fuel Excise Taxes and Oil Price Pass-through”, Energy Economics, 148 (August 2025). WP version is here.

“Labor Market Rigidity at Home and MNCs' Flexible Task Reallocation Abroad”, (with Jaerim Choi and Sunghoon Chung), Journal of Development Economics, 176 (September 2025). Read the Blog. media coverage: Hankyung (in Korean). WP version is here.

“Macroeconomic Policy, Product Market Competition, and Growth: The Intangible Investment Channel”, (with Romain Duval and Can Sever) accepted at International Journal of Central Banking.  

“Contracting with Enemies?: Vertical FDI with Outsourcing Contracts", (with Jee-Hyeong Park), International Economic Journal, 37(3) (July 2023), pp.359-386. WP version is here.   

“The Role of Import Prices in Flattening The Phillips Curve: Evidence from Korea”, (with Jiwon Lee), Journal of Asian Economics, 86 (June 2023).  

“Political Conflict and Angry Consumers: Evaluating the Regional Impacts of a Consumer Boycott on Trade in Services”, (with Theresa Greaney and Kozo Kiyota), Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 65 (September 2022).

“For Whom the Levy Tolls: The Case of a Macroprudential Stability Levy in South Korea”, (with Young-ju Kim, and Hyunjoon Lim), IMF Economic Review, 70 (September 2022), pp.520-559. Received the best paper prize from the Korean Economic Association in 2022.

“Identifying FDI Types: Watch What They Do, Not What They Say or Look Like", (with Jee-Hyeong Park), Economics Letters, 213 (April 2022).

“Trade Finance and Payment Methods in International Trade”, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance (2021). 

“A Theory of Domestic and International Trade Finance”, Emerging Market Finance: New Challenges and Opportunities (International Finance Review, vol.21, 2020), Emerald Publishing Limited, pp.203-229. IMF Working Paper version is available here. 

“From Firm-Level Imports to Aggregate Productivity: Evidence from Korean Manufacturing Firms Data”, (with Moon Jung Choi) Japan and the World Economy, 56 (December 2020). WP version is here. 

“Real Exchange Rate and External Balance: How Important are Price Deflators?”, (with Rui Mano and Jing Zhou) Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 52(8) (December 2020), pp.2111-2130. WP version is here. 

“Estimating the Direct Impact of Bank Liquidity Shocks on the Real Economy: Evidence from Letter-of-Credit Import Transactions in Colombia”,  (with Miguel Sarmiento) Review of International Economics, 27(5) (November 2019), pp.1510-1536. WP version is here.

“Reassessing the Productivity Gains from Trade Liberalization”, (with Era Dabla-Norris, Romain Duval, Bingjie Hu, and Lamin Njie) Review of International Economics, 27(1) (February 2019), pp.130-154. IMF Working Paper version is available here. 

“Trading with China: Productivity Gains, Job Losses” (with Romain Duval), Economics Letters, 160 (November 2017), pp.38-42. IMF Working Paper version is available here.

“Capacity Constrained Exporters: Identifying Increasing Marginal Cost” (with Alexander McQuoid), Economic Inquiry, 55(3) (July 2017), pp.1175-1191. This is a substantially revised version of the paper circulated under the title "Capacity Constrained Exporters: Micro Evidence and Macro Implications".

“Pass-Through of Imported Input Prices to Domestic Producer Prices: Evidence from Sector-level Data”, (with Chang-Gui Park and Chanho Park), B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, , 17(2) (June 2017). IMF Working Paper version is available here.

“Exchange Rate Pass-Through to Domestic Producer Prices: Evidence from Korean Firm-Level Pricing Survey”, (with Chang-Gui Park), Economics Letters. 125(1) (October 2014), pp.138-142. BOK Working Paper version is available here.

“A Welfare Analysis of Unilateral Trade and FDI Liberalization”, Canadian Journal of Economics, 47(3) (August 2014), pp.758-774. Previously titled as "Heterogeneous Firms, Horizontal FDI, and Welfare Implications". WP version is here.

“Trade Finance and the Great Trade Collapse” (with Mary Amiti and David Weinstein), American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 101(3) (May 2011), pp.298-302.

“The Role of Intermediaries in Facilitating Trade” (with Amit Khandelwal and Shang-Jin Wei), Journal of International Economics, 84(1) (May 2011), pp.73-85. Online Appendix. NBER Working Paper version is available here.

Other Publications:

“How Have Higher Interest Rates Affected U.S. Corporates? ”, featured in IMF Staff Report for the 2024 United States Article IV Consultation, July 2024. media coverage: The Economist. 

“G20 Report on Strong, Sustainable, Balanced, and Inclusive Growth”, November 2023. Read the Blog. 

“Geopolitics and the Cost of FDI Fragmentation”, in Aiyar, S, A Presbitero and M Ruta (eds), Geoeconomic Fragmentation : The Economic Risks from a Fractured World Economy, CEPR Press, Paris & London, October 2023.

“Geoeconomic Fragmentation and Foreign Direct Investment”, chapter 4 in IMF World Economic Outlook, April 2023. Read the Blog. Online Annexes are available here. media coverage: The Economist; Financial Times; CNBC

“Perspectives on Macroeconomic Policy Issues in the Post-Covid-19 Era”, Korean Social Science Journal 48(2) (Oct 2021), pp.25-35.

“Work in Progress: Improving Youth Labor Market Outcomes in Emerging Market and Developing Economies”, IMF Staff Discussion Note 19/02, 2019. Technical Appendices are available here.

“Macroeconomic Adjustment in Emerging Market Commodity Exporters”, featured in IMF World Economic Outlook, October 2017.

“How Trade with China Boosts Productivity”, featured in IMF Blog, May 2017. This is a short summary of the paper "Trading with China: Productivity Gains, Job Losses".

“Is the Trade Slowdown Contributing to the Global Productivity Slowdown? New Evidence”, featured in IMF World Economic Outlook, October 2016. This is based on the paper "Trading with China: Productivity Gains, Job Losses".

“The Impact of Commodity Prices on Producer Price Inflation”, featured in IMF World Economic Outlook, October 2016. This is based on the paper "Pass-Through of Imported Input Prices to Domestic Producer Prices: Evidence from Sector-level Data".

“The Potential Productivity Gains from Further Trade and Foreign Direct Investment Liberalization”, featured in IMF World Economic Outlook, April 2016. This is a short summary of the paper "Reassessing the Productivity Gains from Trade Liberalization.".

“Labor Market Policies and Economic Growth”, Appendix chapter to IMF Staff Report for the 2013 Indonesia Article IV Consultation, December 2013. One page summary box is here.

 “Trade Finance and Its Role in the Great Trade Collapse”, IMF Research Bulletin, March 2013.  This article summarizes my research on trade finance.

Presentations/Discussions (as of 2020):

            2009-2017 NBER China Working Group Meeting, New York Fed, Bank of Canada, Boston Fed, Federal Reserve Board, Ryerson, Tufts, Conference on Globalization, Strategies and Effects (Aarhus University), IMF, International Trade Workshop (Florida International University), International Industrial Organization Conference (George Mason University), Rocky Mountain Empirical Trade Conference (University of British Columbia), DC Trade Workshop at GWU, NBER ITI Spring Meeting, World Bank Annual Conference (ABCDE), Bank of Korea (DC office; Headquarter), Seoul National University, Sogang University, Korea Development Institute, IMF-World Bank-WTO Trade Workshop, AEA Meeting, Banque de France, Eastern Economic Association Meeting, U.S. Naval Academy, University of Rochester, Columbia University, Southern Economic Association Meeting, Western Economic Association Meeting, KAEA workshop at the AEA meeting, WAITS Conference at JHU SAIS, WAITS Conference at GW, USITC, Mid-Atlantic Trade Workshop.              

2018    KAEA workshop at the AEA meeting, Eastern Economic Association Meeting. CompNet Annual Conference, IMF, Bank of Korea (DC office), Bank of Korea, Seoul National University, Hanyang University, Yonsei University, Korea Development Institute.     

2019    Sungkyunkwan University, Ewha Womans University, Yonsei University, Bank of Korea, CEBRA 2019 Annual Meeting, UIBE-GVC workshop, Sydney Banking and Financial Stability Conference, Research in Economics and Social Science Conference (Shiga University), IEFS-EAER Conference.     

2020    Osaka University, University of Hawaii at Manoa.     

Ad-hoc Referee Activities (as of April, 2020):

American Economic Review (×2), American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Journal: Policy, American Journal of Agricultural Economics (×2), Canadian Journal of Economics (×7), China Economic Review, Contemporary Economic Policy, Economic Inquiry (×3), Economics Letters (×3), Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, East Asian Economic Review, European Economic Review (×2), IMF Economic Review (×7), International Economic Journal (×2), International Economic Review (×4), International Journal of Central Banking (×2), International Review of Economics and Finance (×2), Journal of Applied Econometrics, Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Development Economics (×5), Journal of Economic Theory (×2), Journal of Economic Theory and Econometrics, Journal of European Economic Association (×2), Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Journal of International Economics (×15), Journal of International Money and Finance, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking (×2), Journal of Korea Trade, Journal of Political Economy (×15), Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Regional Science, Korean Economic Review, Korean Journal of Economics, National Science Foundation, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Oxford Economic Paper, Quarterly Journal of Economics (×4), Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economics and Statistics (×3), Review of International Economics (×2), World Bank Economic Review (×3).

Editorial Positions:

Korean Economic Review (Board of Editors: 2018-2023); Journal of Economic Integration (Co-editor: 2019-2022); International Economic Journal (Associate Editor: 2019-); Korean Journal of Economic Studies (Board of Editors: 2019-); Korean Social Science Journal (Editor: 2020-2022); Review of International Money and Finance (Editor: 2022-); Korean Journal of Economics (Co-Editor: 2022-2024)

Honors and Grants: 

2020                Outstanding Teaching Award, GSIS, Seoul National University

2010                Research Grants, Chazen Institute of International Business at Columbia Business School and the Columbia University CIBER

2009-10           Dissertation Fellowship, Columbia University

2005-09           Faculty Fellowship, Columbia University

2002-05           Fellowships for Excellent Student, Yonsei University

References:  Prof. Donald Davis, Prof. Amit Khandelwal, Prof. David Weinstein