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Economists

Kei-Mu Yi

Senior Vice President
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Kei-Mu YiKei-Mu Yi is a senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

He is currently on leave from the University of Houston, where he is the M.D. Anderson Professor of Economics. He is also a research associate with the International Trade and Investment, and International Finance and Macroeconomics programs at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Previously, he held positions with the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Philadelphia and Minneapolis. In Philadelphia, he was head of the macro section. In Minneapolis, he was senior vice president and director of research and, subsequently, special policy adviser to the bank president.

Earlier, he was an assistant professor of economics at Rice University.

Yi received a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago.

Publications
  • “Trade Integration, Global Value Chains, and Capital Accumulation,” with M. Sposi and J. Zhang, IMF Economic Review, July 2021, 69(3), 505-539.
  • “Middle Income Traps, Long-Run Growth, and Structural Change,” Journal of International Money and Finance, June 2021, 114, 102322.
  • “Gains from Trade: Does Sectoral Heterogeneity Matter?” with R. Giri and H. Yilmazkuday, Journal of International Economics, March 2021, 129, 103429.
  • “Global Value Chains and Inequality with Endogenous Labor Supply,” with E. Lee, Journal of International Economics, 2018, 115, 223-241.
  • “How Much of South Korea’s Growth Miracle Can Be Explained by Trade Policy?” with M. Connolly, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, October 2015, 7 (4), 188-221.
  • “Structural Change in an Open Economy,” with T. Uy and J. Zhang, Journal of Monetary Economics, September 2013, 60 (6), 667-682.
  • “The Great Trade Collapse,” with R. Bems and R. C. Johnson, Annual Review of Economics, 2013 (5), 375-400.
  • “Vertical Linkages and the Collapse of Global Trade,” with R. Bems and R.C. Johnson, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 2011, 101 (3), 308-312.
  • “Demand Spillovers and the Collapse of Trade in the Global Recession”, with R. Bems and R.C. Johnson, IMF Economic Review, December 2010, 58 (2), 295-326.
  • “Can Multi-Stage Production Explain the Home Bias in Trade?” American Economic Review, March 2010, 100 (1), 364-393.
  • “A Tale of Two States: West Bengal and Maharashtra,” with A. Lahiri, Review of Economic Dynamics, July 2009, 12 (3), 523-542.
  • “Can the Standard International Business Cycle Model Explain the Relation between Trade and Comovement?” with A. Kose, Journal of International Economics, March 2006, 68 (2), 267-295.
  • “Vertical Specialization and Three Facts about U.S. International Trade,” with H. Chen and M. Kondratowicz, North American Journal of Economics and Finance, March 2005, 16 (1), 35-59.
  • “Why is Manufacturing Trade Rising Even as Manufacturing Output is Falling?,” with R. Bergoeing, T. Kehoe, and V. Strauss-Kahn, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 2004, 94 (2), 134-138.
  • “Can Vertical Specialization Explain the Growth of World Trade?” Journal of Political Economy, February 2003, 111 (1), 52-102.
  • “The Nature and Growth of Vertical Specialization in World Trade,” with D. Hummels and J. Ishii, Journal of International Economics, June 2001, 54 (1), 75-96.
  • “Can World Real Interest Rates Explain Business Cycles in a Small Open Economy?” with W. Blankenau and A. Kose, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, June 2001, 25 (6-7), 867-889.
  • “International Trade and Business Cycles: Is Vertical Specialization the Missing Link?” with A. Kose, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 2001, 91 (2), 371-375.
  • “Asia Crisis Postmortem: Where Did the Money Go and Did the United States Benefit?” with E. van Wincoop, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, September 2000, 6 (3), 51-70. Reprinted in M. Tcha and C-S Suh, eds., The Korean Economy at the Crossroads, New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003.
  • “Vertical Specialization and the Changing Nature of World Trade,” with D. Hummels and D. Rapoport, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review, June 1998, 4 (2), 79-99.
  • “Is There Endogenous Long Run Growth? Evidence from the U.S. and the U.K.,” with N. Kocherlakota, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, May 1997, 29 (2), 235-262.
  • “Consumer Durables, Permanent Terms of Trade Shocks, and the Recent U.S. Trade Deficits,” with J. Sadka, Journal of International Money and Finance, October 1996, 15 (5), 797-811.
  • “A Simple Time Series Test of Endogenous vs. Exogenous Growth Models: An Application to the United States,” with N. Kocherlakota, Review of Economics and Statistics, February 1996, 78 (1), 126-134.
  • “Can Convergence Regressions Distinguish Between Endogenous and Exogenous Growth Models?” with N. Kocherlakota, Economics Letters, August 1995, 49 (2), 211-215.
  • “Can Government Purchases Explain the Recent United States Net Export Deficits?” Journal of International Economics, November 1993, 35 (3-4), 201-225.
Working Papers
  • “The Micro and Macro Dynamics of Capital Inflows,” with F. Saffie and L. Varela; under review.
  • “Perspectives on Trade and Structural Transformation,” with G. Alessandria and R. C. Johnson; under review.
  • “Deindustrialization and Industry Polarization,” with M. Sposi and J. Zhang; under review.
  • “Mobility and Engagement Following the SARS-Cov-2 Outbreak,” with T. Atkinson, J. Dolmas, C. Koch, E. Koenig, K. Mertens and A. Murphy.
  • “Accounting for Structural Change over Time: A Case Study of Three Middle Income Countries,” with M. Sposi and J. Zhang.
  • “Accounting for the Sources of the Recent Decline in Korea’s Exports to China,” with M. Choi.
  • Structural Change and Deindustrialization,” with M. Sposi and J. Zhang.
  • “The Role of Trade in China’s Growth” with J. Ju, V. Yue and J. Zhang.
  • “An Accounting of the Decline in China’s Trade,” with Y. Zhang.
  • “Firm-Level Structural Change” with F. Saffie and L. Varela.
  • “Multinationals and Structural Change” with V. Alviarez, C. Chen, N. Pandalai-Nayar, L. Varela, and H. Zhang
Dallas Fed Publications
  • “Dallas Fed Mobility and Engagement Index Gives Insight into COVID-19’s Economic Impact,” with T. Atkinson, J. Dolmas, C. Koch, E. Koenig, K. Mertens, and A. Murphy, Dallas Fed Economics, May 2020.
Other Works
  • Co-editor (w/ M. Sposi and J. Zhang), Recent Developments in the Economics of Structural Change, International Library of Critical Writings in Economics Series, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishers, 2019.
  • “Understanding Global Trends in Long-run Real Interest Rates,” with J. Zhang, Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 2017, 41 (2).
  • “Real Interest Rates Over the Long Run,” with J. Zhang, Economic Policy Papers, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, September 2016.
  • “How Rich Will China Become? A simple calculation based on South Korea and Japan’s experience.,” with J. Jiang, Economic Policy Papers, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, May 2015.
  • Discussion of “The Effects of Offshoring on the Composition of Employment in Italy” by Anna M. Falzoni and Lucia Tajoli, in Robert M. Stern (ed.), Quantitative Analysis of Newly Evolving Patterns of International Trade: Fragmentation; Offshoring of Activities; and Vertical Intra-Industry Trade, Singapore: World Scientific Publishers, 2012.
  • “The Role of the Composition Effect and Intermediate Goods in the Great Trade Collapse,” Box 4.1 in IMF World Economic Outlook, October 2010, pp. 129-131, with R Bems and R. C. Johnson.
  • “China’s Emergence as a Manufacturing Juggernaut: Is it Over-Stated?” with B. Kianian, FRB of Philadelphia Business Review, Fourth Quarter, 2009.
  • “The Collapse of Global Trade: Update on the Role of Vertical Linkages” with R. Bems and R.C. Johnson in The Great Trade Collapse: Causes, Consequences and Prospects, ed. Richard Baldwin, November 2009, 79-86. London.
  • “The Collapse of Global Trade: The Role of Vertical Specialisation” in The Collapse of Global Trade, Murky Protectionism, and the Crisis: Recommendations for the G20, eds. Richard Baldwin and Simon Evenett, March 2009, 45-48. London.
  • “International Trade: Why We Don’t Have More of It.,” with E. Ostapik, FRB of Philadelphia Business Review, Third Quarter, 2007.
  • “What Will the Next Export Boom Look Like? Some Hints from the late 1980s.” FRB of Philadelphia Business Review, Fourth Quarter, 2006.
  • Review of Barriers to Riches by Stephen L. Parente and Edward C. Prescott, Journal of International Economics, May 2003, 60 (1), 223-228.
  • Review of Fragmentation, ed. by Sven W. Arndt and Henryk Kierzkowski, Journal of Economic Literature, December 2002, 40 (4), 1252-1253.
  • “Curbing Unemployment in Europe: Are There Lessons from Ireland and the Netherlands?” with C. Tille, FRBNY Current Issues in Economics and Finance, Vol. 7, No. 5. May 2001.
  • “The Effects of a Booming Economy on the U.S. Trade Deficit,” with S. Papaioannou, FRBNY Current Issues in Economics and Finance, Vol. 7, No 2. February 2001.
  • Discussion of “Revealing Comparative Advantage: Chaotic or Coherent Patterns Across Time and Sector and U.S. Trading Partner?” by David Richardson and Chi Zhang, in Topics in Empirical International Economics: A Festschrift in Honor of Robert E. Lipsey, NBER Conference Volume, University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 2001.
  • Review of Private Behavior and Government Policy in Interdependent Economies, ed. by A.S. Courakis and M.P. Taylor, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, May 1993, 25 (2), 295-298.