Dlouhý is a former deputy chairman of the ODA political party and Minister of Industry and Trade between 1992 and 1997 in the government of Václav Klaus.

Simultaneously, in 1980, he started Ph.D. studies at the University of Economics in Prague and, in 1983, he earned the degree of a candidate of science by defending dissertation thesis on the topic of ‘Unequal models of the socialist economy.’ A year later, this work was published as a book co-authored by Karel Dyba.

After the 1992 elections and the subsequent dissolution of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic he joined the coalition government of Václav Klaus and was appointed the Minister of Industry and Trade.

Since September 1997 until now he has worked as an international adviser for multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs where he is responsible for Central and Eastern Europe.

Between 2000 and 2011, he was a member of the Board of International Overseers) of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago.

Between 2010 and 2012, he was a member of the European group of advisers to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He publishes extensively as an author or co-author ranging from specialized texts to articles in the daily paper.

Over the past years, many representatives from the Czech Republic have presented at these events (e.g. Václav Klaus, Zdeněk Tůma etc.)

In 2020, the Czech government of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš nominated Dlouhý as its candidate to succeed Angel Gurría in the position of Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for a five-year term.

[11][12] Together with Václav Klaus, Dlouhý was awarded ‘Ropák’ of the year 1993 and, in April 2016, he was awarded the Green Pearl for the following statement: ‘It is always quite difficult to interpret similar studies and results, but this really shows that the Třebíč Region and the whole southern part of the Vysočina Region would suffer very significantly economically and in the long term, if Dukovany were to be shut down or were not expanded.’ As much as the current numbers are ambiguous, which the authors admit, their conclusion is indisputable.“[14] Dlouhý has divorced twice; from his first marriage he has a son, Štěpán, and daughter, Markéta.