Welcome to Illoong Kwon's Home Page!
Illoong Kwon is an assistant professor in the department of economics at SUNY-Albany. His main research interest is in the economics of organization and personnel economics which overlap industrial organization, labor economics, and corporate finance. Some of his recent research got published in Rand Journal of Economics, Journal of Labor Economics, and Journal of Economics and Management Strategy.
Professor
Kwon's research methodology includes both theoretical and empirical
approach. For example, some of his research involves dynamic
principal-agent models and empirical tests using confidential
personnel records from U.S. or Sweden.
Illoong's earlier research includes the design of the optimal contracts when an agent's action affects either the agent's or the principal's future payoffs. These research show that such a dynamic model can explain many puzzles in personnel economics such as the lack of bonus pay, the dominance of promotion-based incentives, and the use of dismissals as an incentive device.
Current Research
Professor Kwon's current research includes a series of empirical studies with Eva Meyersson Milgrom. Their research is based on the confidential
Swedish employer-employee match data that are essentially a collection
of personnel records of almost every firm in Sweden. They are currently
working on the issues of workers' career choice, their preference
of relative wage (or status) within their jobs, and the gender difference in status perception. 
He also works on the interplay between incentive contracts and decision rights in an organizations. This line of research attempts to explain the separation of leadership and authority, evolution of hierarchy, and competing tournaments.
Future Research
For his future research, he is pursuing the issues of gender interaction, post-merger integration, firm growth, and overstatement as well as the various extensions of current research.