김지희 연구실

I am an economist at KAIST interested in how economies grow and how the gains from growth are distributed. My research began with the theory of economic growth and inequality, and expanded into using AI, satellite imagery, and geospatial data to measure economic change. This work has developed into a broader interest in AI: how it reasons about the world, how it can support social science, and how its use may reshape economic outcomes. In 2026, I launched econai@kaist, the Economic Progress and AI Research Group at KAIST. I study how innovation, entrepreneurship, and institutions shape economic growth and income inequality. My theoretical work examines the forces behind long-run growth and the concentration of income at the top. It asks how incentives, competition, and policy influence both the creation of prosperity and its distribution. I study AI as both a tool for economic and social research and a participant in economic life. Using AI and computational methods, I investigate human decisions, markets, and collective behavior, while examining how AI itself understands and reasons about the world. Together, these perspectives help me assess when AI can reliably support research and how interactions among people and AI agents may reshape economic outcomes. I use AI to measure economic change where conventional data fall short. By combining satellite imagery, geospatial data, and economic knowledge, I study development, poverty, and regional disparities. North Korea is an important setting for this work: new measurement tools help reveal changes that are difficult to observe directly and examine the effects of sanctions and other shocks.