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About Kei-Mu
Kei-Mu Yi is the M.D. Anderson Professor of Economics at the University of Houston in the Business & Economics faculty. He specializes in international economics and macroeconomics. Yi received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1990, an M.A. in Economics from the same institution in 1985, and a B.S. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983. His research interests encompass international trade, macroeconomics, structural change, global value chains, vertical specialization, business cycles, open economy macroeconomics, economic growth, and development, with past work testing endogenous growth models, the trade-comovement puzzle, and the border effect puzzle.
Throughout his career, Yi has held prominent positions in academia and central banking. Since January 2016, he has been at the University of Houston, currently on leave as Senior Vice President in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (August 2019–present). Previously, he served as Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (2010–2013), Special Policy Advisor to the President there (2013–2016), Vice President and Head of the Macroeconomics section at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia (2004–2010), and various economist roles at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1996–2003). Earlier, he was Assistant Professor of Economics at Rice University (1990–1998). Yi is a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research’s International Trade and Investment and International Finance and Macroeconomics programs since May 2016. His seminal publications include “Can Vertical Specialization Explain the Growth of World Trade?” (Journal of Political Economy, 2003), “The Nature and Growth of Vertical Specialization in World Trade” with D. Hummels and J. Ishii (Journal of International Economics, 2001), “The Great Trade Collapse” with R. Bems and R.C. Johnson (Annual Review of Economics, 2013), “Structural Change in an Open Economy” with T. Uy and J. Zhang (Journal of Monetary Economics, 2013), and “How Much of South Korea’s Growth Miracle Can Be Explained by Trade Policy?” with M. Connolly (American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2015). Yi has received the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Fellowship (1988–1989), U.S. Department of Education Title VI Fellowship (1988), and multiple research grants from Rice University (1991–1996). He has contributed editorially as Associate Editor of the Journal of International Economics (2003–2015), Co-Editor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review (2002–2003), and in other roles at Federal Reserve publications.