Recently, economic sanctions have not been effective in changing the behavior of a sanctioned country. Dr. Yong Lee examines how an autocratic regime domestically counters the impact of economic sanctions, specifically, how the easing and tightening of sanctions impact the urban areas relative to the hinterlands in North Korea. Using the satellite luminosity data, he argues sanctions that fail to change the autocrat's behavior increase inequality at a cost to the already marginalized hinterlands.

Dr. Lee's research intersects the fields of economic development, urban economics and international economics, with a regional focus on Korea and East Asia. His recent work examines the impact of economic sanctions on North Korea's urban elites, and the impact of education policy on migration and intergenerational mobility in South Korea.

Dr. Lee joined the Korea Program as the SK Center Fellow at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) in the fall 2014. Prior to joining Stanford, Lee was an assistant professor of economics at Williams College in Massachusetts. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture from Seoul National University, a master of public policy from Duke University, and a master's degree and doctorate in economics from Brown University. He also worked as a real estate development consultant and architecture designer as he transitioned from architecture to economics.