Jong Hyun (Jake) Lee

Hello, I am currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. My research interests lie broadly in international political economy, with a focus on trade and investment politics, transparency and accountability in international organizations (IOs), and energy shocks and local political responses. Across these areas, I aim to explain how states, firms, IOs, and local communities navigate today’s global economic rules. Below are three projects in my pipeline. 

Business and governments

One stream of my work examines how firms and governments strategize under today’s trade and investment rules. My current working paper with Jane Sumner track how firms respond to politically driven tariff shocks, especially in business-to-government (B2G) contracts. My related published article with Haillie Na-Kyung Lee also probes how firms adjust their strategies in investor state disputes in response to the partisan orientation of host governments and how governments, in turn, adapt their behavior strategically.

International Organizations (IOs)

IOs draft many of the rules others follow. Do they follow their own standards? I build an original IO Transparency Measure that evaluates practice, not just policy design. Focusing on development banks, the measure captures how fully and how quickly their accountability offices disclose complaints, findings, and follow-up, even when disclosure may undermine their development goals. While past measures code existence of de jure rules on paper, my measure checks whether those procedures are carried out in practice. In doing so, the measure exposes the policy-practice gap and link transparency to accountability in action.

Local communities

To what extent does local green capacity shape communities’ exposure to geopolitical energy shocks and their electoral response? I test whether communities with fewer alternatives are more likely to vote against incumbents when geopolitical shocks raise fossil fuel prices, and whether that backlash remains local or extends to national elections.