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Ha-Joon Chang (; ; born 7 October 1963) is a South Korean
institutional economist Institutional economics focuses on understanding the role of the evolutionary process and the role of institutions in shaping economic behavior. Its original focus lay in Thorstein Veblen's instinct-oriented dichotomy between technology on the o ...
, specialising in development economics. Chang is the author of several widely discussed policy books, most notably ''Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective'' (2002). In 2013, ''Prospect'' magazine ranked Chang as one of the top 20 World Thinkers. He has served as a consultant to the
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
, the
Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field of ...
, the European Investment Bank, as well as to Oxfam and various
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
agencies. He is also a fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. In addition, Chang serves on the advisory board of
Academics Stand Against Poverty Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) is an international network of scholars, teachers, and students working to mobilize the resources of academia to help alleviate poverty. Projects ASAP is currently engaged in a range of efforts aimed at leve ...
(ASAP).


Biography

After graduating from Seoul National University's Department of Economics, he studied at the
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, earning an MPhil and a
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...
for his thesis entitled ''The Political Economy of Industrial Policy – Reflections on the Role of State Intervention'' in 1991. Chang's contribution to
economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...
started while studying under Robert Rowthorn, a leading British Marxist economist, with whom he worked on the elaboration of the theory of industrial policy, which he described as a middle way between central planning and an unrestrained
free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...
. His work in this area is part of a broader approach to economics known as
institutionalist political economy Institutionalist political economy, also known as institutional political economy or IPE, refers to a body of political economy, thought to stem from the works of institutionalists such as Thorstein Veblen, John Commons, Wesley Mitchell and John D ...
which places economic history and socio-political factors at the centre of the evolution of economic practices.


Writing


Kicking Away the Ladder

In his book ''Kicking Away the Ladder'' (which won the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy's 2003
Gunnar Myrdal Prize The European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE) is a pluralist forum of social scientists that brings together institutional and evolutionary economists broadly defined. EAEPE members are scholars working on realistic approa ...
), Chang argued that all major developed countries used interventionist economic policies in order to get rich and then tried to forbid other countries from doing the same. The
World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and ...
,
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
, and
International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...
come in for strong criticism from Chang for "ladder-kicking" of this type which, he argues, is the fundamental obstacle to poverty alleviation in the developing world. This and other work led to his being awarded the 2005 Wassily Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought from the Global Development and Environment Institute (previous prize-winners include
Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, economi ...
, John Kenneth Galbraith, Herman Daly,
Alice Amsden Alice Hoffenberg Amsden (June 27, 1943 – March 14, 2012) was a political economist and scholar of state-led economic development. For the last two decades of her career, she was the Barton L. Weller Professor of Political Economy at the Massach ...
and Robert Wade). The book's methodology was criticized by American Douglas Irwin, Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College and author of a 2011 study of the Smoot–Hawley tariff, writing on the website of the Economic History Association:
Chang only looks at countries that developed during the nineteenth century and a small number of the policies they pursued. He did not examine countries that failed to develop in the nineteenth century and see if they pursued the same heterodox policies only more intensively. This is a poor scientific and historical method. Suppose a doctor studied people with long lives and found that some smoked tobacco, but did not study people with shorter lives to see if smoking was even more prevalent. Any conclusions drawn only from the observed relationship would be quite misleading.
Chang countered Irwin's criticisms by arguing that countries that had failed to develop had generally followed free market policies. Chang also argued that while state interventionism sometimes produced economic failures, it had a better record than unregulated
free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...
economies which, he maintained, very rarely succeeded in producing economic development. He cited evidence that GDP growth in developing countries had been higher prior to external pressures recommending deregulation and extended his analysis to the failures of free trade to induce growth through privatisation and anti-
inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reduct ...
ary policies. Chang's book won plaudits from Nobel Prize–winning economist Joseph Stiglitz for its fresh insight and effective blend of contemporary and historical cases but was criticised by former World Bank economist William Easterly, who said that Chang used selective evidence in his book. Chang responded to Easterly's criticisms, asserting that Easterly misread his argument. Easterly in turn provided a counter-reply. Stanley Engerman, Professor of Economic History at
Rochester University Rochester University (formerly Rochester College) is a private Christian college in Rochester Hills, Michigan. It was founded by members of the Churches of Christ in 1959. Rochester University is primarily undergraduate (though it offers some ...
praised Chang's approach:
Ha-Joon Chang has examined a large body of historical material to reach some very interesting and important conclusions about institutions and economic development. Not only is the historical picture re-examined, but Chang uses this to argue the need for a changing attitude to the institutions desired in today's developing nations. Both as historical reinterpretation and policy advocacy, ''Kicking Away the Ladder'' deserves a wide audience among economists, historians, and members of the policy establishment.


Bad Samaritans

Following up on the ideas of ''Kicking Away the Ladder'', Chang published '' Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism'' in December 2008.


23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Chang's next book, '' 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism'', was released in 2011. It offers a twenty-three point rebuttal to aspects of neo-liberal capitalism. This includes assertions such as "Making rich people richer doesn't make the rest of us richer," "Companies should not be run in the interests of their owners," and "The washing machine has changed the world more than the internet has." This book questions the assumptions behind the dogma of neo-liberal capitalism and offers a vision of how we can shape capitalism to humane ends. This marks a broadening of Chang's focus from his previous books that were mainly critiques of neo-liberal capitalism as it related to developing countries. In this book, Chang begins to discuss the issues of the current neo-liberal system across all countries.


Economics: The User's Guide

Chang's 2014 book, '' Economics: The User's Guide'', is an introduction to economics, written for the general public.


Publications


Books

* ''The Political Economy of Industrial Policy'' ( St. Martin's Press; 1994) * ''The Transformation of the Communist Economies: Against the Mainstream'' ( Palgrave Macmillan; 1995) * ''Financial Liberalization and the Asian Crisis'' (Palgrave Macmillan; 2001) *
Joseph Stiglitz and the World Bank: The Rebel Within
' (collection of Stiglitz speeches) (Anthem; 2001) * ''Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective'' (Anthem; 2002) * ''Globalization, Economic Development, and the Role of the State'' (essay collection) ( Zed Books; 2002) * ''Restructuring Korea Inc.'' (with Jang-Sup Shin) (Routledge; 2003) * ''Reclaiming Development: An Alternative Economic Policy Manual'' (with Ilene Grabel) (Zed; 2004) * ''The Politics of Trade and Industrial Policy in Africa: Forced Consensus'' (edited with Charles Chukwuma Soludo & Osita Ogbu) (Africa World Press; 2004) * ''Gae-Hyuck Ui Dut'' (''The Reform Trap''), Bookie, Seoul, 2004 (collection of essays in Korean) * ''Kwe-Do Nan-Ma Hankook-Kyungje'' (''Cutting the Gordian Knot – An Analysis of the Korean Economy'') Bookie, Seoul, 2005 (in Korean) (co-author: Seung-il Jeong) * ''The East Asian Development Experience: The Miracle, the Crisis and the Future'' (Zed; 2007) * '' Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism'' ( Bloomsbury; 2008) * '' 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism'' ( Penguin Books Ltd; 2010) * '' Economics: The User's Guide'' ( Pelican Books; 2014) * Edible Economics – A Hungry Economist Explains the World (Pelican Books; 2022) ISBN 9780241534649


Papers and articles

* ''Intellectual Property Rights and Economic Development: Historical lessons and emerging issues'', TWN, 2001 *
Who Benefits from the New International Intellectual Property Rights Regime?: And what Should Africa Do?
', ATPSN, 2001
''Economic History of the Developed World: Lessons for Africa Economic History of the Developed World: Lessons for Africa''
2009. *
Industrial Policy: Can Africa do it?
'', July 2012. * ''Institutional Change and Economic Development'', Tokyo 2007. *
Kicking Away the Ladder: The "Real" History of Free Trade
', '' Foreign Policy'', 30 December 2003 *
"Foreign Investment Regulation in Historical Perspective Lessons for the Proposed WTO Investment Agreement"
', '' Global Policy'', 2003.


Personal life

He is the son of a former minister of industry and resources, Chang Jae-sik, brother of a historian and philosopher of science,
Hasok Chang Hasok Chang (; born March 26, 1967) is a Korean-born American historian and philosopher of science currently serving as the Hans Rausing Professor at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and a boa ...
, and cousin of a prominent economist and professor at Korea University, Chang Ha-Seong. He lives in Cambridge with his wife, Hee-Jeong Kim, and two children, Yuna, and Jin-Gyu.


See also

*
Capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
*
Criticism of capitalism Criticism of capitalism ranges from expressing disagreement with the principles of capitalism in its entirety to expressing disagreement with particular outcomes of capitalism. Criticism of capitalism comes from various political and philoso ...
*
Institutionalist political economy Institutionalist political economy, also known as institutional political economy or IPE, refers to a body of political economy, thought to stem from the works of institutionalists such as Thorstein Veblen, John Commons, Wesley Mitchell and John D ...
* Miracle on the Han River


References


External links


Ha-Joon Chang
''official website''

at the
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Column archive
at ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' * * * * ;Interviews
"Why the World Isn't Flat"
video of Ha-Joon Chang lecture for the
New America Foundation New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is a think tank in the United States founded in 1999. It focuses on a range of public policy issues, including national security studies, technology, asset building, health, gender, energy, educ ...
, 4 February 2008
Korea Society Podcast: Ha-Joon Chang Discusses ''Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism''
28 May 2008
"Economist Ha-Joon Chang on 'The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism'"
Ha-Joon Chang interviewed on Democracy Now!, 10 March 2009 (video, audio, and print transcript)
Ha-Joon Chang on the G20 Summit, Currency Wars and Why the Free Market is a "Myth"
– video interview by '' Democracy Now!'', 12 November 2010
Ha-Joon Chang on RAI Economy portal


{{DEFAULTSORT:Chang, Ha-Joon Living people 1963 births Seoul National University alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge Academics of the University of Cambridge 21st-century South Korean economists Development economists Development specialists South Korean progressives Indong Jang clan Center for Economic and Policy Research 20th-century South Korean economists