Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies (APJFS) reported that KDI School produced the 8th highest number of articles in top financial journals. Published by Korean Securities Association, the APJFS ran a paper in July which examined financial research in Korean institutions from 1990.The analysis showed that the financial research produced by Korean universities has been constantly on the rise since 1990s. The KDI School’s accomplishment was especially notable, given its shorter history compared to the other universities in company (see Table 1). The most surprising observation was that the KDI School has attained an increase of 91.3% in publications over the past 5 years alone (2006-2010), pulling the School up to the 4th among the most productive universities since 2006. One of the reasons for this remarkable growth is the School’s research incentive scheme along with a continuous emphasis on research productivity.

Table 1 Financial research productivity among Korean academic institutions (1990 – 2010, 2006-2010)

It is no trivial feat that a school of such small size was able to establish itself among the best. Adding to the pride, two of the KDI School professors were ranked 13th in the list of leading researchers of seven top-tier financial journals: Prof. Wook Sohn and Prof. Jinsoo Lee.

At the same time, KDI School is currently ranked as the top business school in Korea and placed 109th in the world by the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) (see Table 2). SSRN is a website dedicated to dissemination of scholarly research in social sciences and humanities, namely economics, finance, accounting, management and law. The highest number of individual paper downloads belonged to those of Prof. Woochan Kim, Prof. Seung-Joo Lee and Prof. Yu-Sang Chang.

Table 2 Leading Researchers in seven premier finance journals (1990 – 2010)

By Chan-Ju LEE (2011 MPP, Korea) and Natasa VUJOVIC (2011 MPP, Serbia)