Dr Kahee Jo

Dr. Kahee Jo is a political scientist with a particular interest in economic development and political shifts from the perspective of business power. Her work seeks to identify causal linkages by exploring industrial development and the changing influence of businesses, which lead to qualitatively different relationships between the state and businesses. With the case of EV policymaking in South Korea as her focal point, she aims to build a theoretical framework to explain business power and development pathways in East Asia, including both newly advanced economies in the North and emerging economies in the South.

Before joining SEAS, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Korean Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, supported by a scholarship from the KDI School in South Korea. Kahee is currently engaged in multiple research projects that examine various aspects of business power in South Korea and the broader East Asian region. She is also working on a book manuscript derived from her doctoral research, which investigates the structural power of businesses in South Korean EV policymaking (link)