Jong-Wha Lee is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Economics and Director of the Center for Demography and Innovation at Korea University. He served as Dean of the College of Political Science and Economics and Dean of the Graduate School of Policy Studies at Korea University. He also previously served as the president of the Korea Economic Association, the president for the Korea International Economic Association, and the vice president for the Korea Money and Finance Association.

He previously served as Chief Economist and Director General of the Economics and Research Department at the Asian Development Bank and worked as an economist at the International Monetary Fund. He also served as Senior Adviser for International Economic Affairs to the former President of South Korea and as the country's G20 sherpa. He has taught at Australian National University, Harvard University, Columbia University, and Peking University. He obtained his Ph.D. and Master’s degree in Economics from Harvard University, and his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in economics from Korea University in Seoul.

Lee has written and published extensively on topics relating to human capital, growth, financial crises, and economic integration in leading academic journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Economic Growth, and Review of Economics and Statistics. His most recent books include Is this the Asian Century? (World Scientific, 2017), Crisis and Recovery: Learning from the Asian Experience (World Scientific, 2016), and Education Matters: Global Schooling Gains from the 19th to the 21st Century with Robert J. Barro (Oxford University Press, 2015). According to Google Scholar, his work has been cited over 50,000 times as of December 2025, highlighting his profound impact on economic scholarship. He was awarded Korean National Academy of Sciences Award, Kyung-Ahm Prize, Inchon Award, Cheongram Prize, Maekyung Economist Award, and Dasan Economics Award. He is a regular columnist for Project Syndicate.