{{Short description|South Korean economist (born 1963)}} {{use dmy dates|date=August 2016}} {{Infobox economist | name = Ha-Joon Chang | image = Ha-Joon Chang profile cropped.jpg | caption = Chang in 2011 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1963|10|7}} | birth_place = Seoul, South Korea | death_date = | death_place = | education = {{ubl |Seoul National University (BA) |University of Cambridge (MPhil, PhD)}} | doctoral_advisor = Robert Rowthorn<br />John Hicks | influences = Robert Rowthorn<br />Joseph Stiglitz | field = Development economics | school_tradition = Institutional economics | institution = SOAS University of London | awards = Gunnar Myrdal Prize (2003)<br>Wassily Leontief Prize (2005) | repec_prefix = f | repec_id = pch741 |module = {{Infobox Korean name/auto |child = yes |hangul = %장하준 |hanja = 張夏准 |ipa = {{IPA|ko|tɕaŋ ɦa.dʑun|}}}} }} '''Ha-Joon Chang''' ({{IPAc-en|tʃ|æ|ŋ}}; {{Korean|hangul=장하준}}; born 7 October 1963)<ref name="CV-HJC">{{cite web |title=Curriculum Vitae |url=https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Generic-Documents/Ha-Joon%20Chang%20bio_EN.pdf |website=African Development Bank Group |access-date=22 June 2018}}</ref> is a South Korean economist and academic. Chang specialises in institutional economics and development, and lectured in economics at the University of Cambridge from 1990&ndash;2021 before becoming professor of economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr Ha-Joon Chang - Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) |url=https://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/people/hjc1001/ |access-date=2023-10-07 |website=www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Professor Ha-Joon Chang |url=https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/ha-joon-chang |access-date=2023-10-07 |website=SOAS |language=en}}</ref> Chang is the author of several bestselling books on economics and development policy, most notably ''Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective'' (2002).<ref>{{cite web|title=Ha-Joon Chang's home page|url=http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/faculty/chang/|website=University of Cambridge|date=19 Oct 2007|access-date=2007-10-19|archive-date=24 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200824153226/http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/faculty/chang/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Article summarising 'Kicking Away the Ladder' book | url=http://www.paecon.net/PAEtexts/Chang1.htm | journal=Post-Autistic Economics Review | date=14 September 2002| access-date=2007-10-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | title=A paper by Chang summarising much of 'Kicking Away the Ladder' | url=http://www.fpif.org/papers/03trade/index.html | journal=Foreign Policy in Focus | date=April 2003 | access-date=2007-10-19 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071009195230/http://www.fpif.org/papers/03trade/index.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-10-09}}</ref> In 2013, ''Prospect'' magazine ranked Chang as one of the top 20 World Thinkers.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/world-thinkers-2013/|title=World Thinkers 2013 |work=Prospect Magazine}}</ref>

Chang has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, as well as to Oxfam<ref>{{Cite web| author=Ha-Joon Chang | title=Why Developing Countries Need Tariffs? How WTO NAMA Negotiations Could Deny Developing Countries' Right To A Future | url=http://www.southcentre.org/publications/SouthPerspectiveSeries/WhyDevCountriesNeedTariffsNew.pdf | website=Oxfam International/South Centre | date=November 2005 | access-date=2007-10-19 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070928081202/http://www.southcentre.org/publications/SouthPerspectiveSeries/WhyDevCountriesNeedTariffsNew.pdf <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-09-28}}</ref> and various United Nations agencies.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Ha-Joon Chang | title=Understanding the Relationship between Institutions and Economic Development: Some Key Theoretical Issues | url=http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/dps/dps2006/dp2006-05.pdf | website=The World Institute for Development Economics Research/United Nations University | date=July 2006| access-date=2007-10-19}}</ref> He is also a fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research<ref>{{cite web | title=CEPR Senior Research Partners | url=http://www.cepr.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1026&Itemid=153#chang | website=Center for Economic and Policy Research | date=19 Oct 2007 | access-date=2007-10-19}}</ref> in Washington, D.C. In addition, Chang serves on the advisory board of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP){{Citation needed|date=April 2026|reason='no source given in the lead nor the body'}}.

==Biography== After graduating from Seoul National University's Department of Economics, he studied at the University of Cambridge, earning an MPhil and a PhD for his thesis entitled ''The Political Economy of Industrial Policy – Reflections on the Role of State Intervention'' in 1991. Chang's contribution to economics started while studying under Robert Rowthorn, a leading British Marxist economist,<ref>{{cite journal| author=Bob Rowthorn | title=Neo-Classicism, Neo-Ricardianism and Marxism | url=http://www.newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=1322 | journal=New Left Review | date= July–August 1974 | access-date=2007-10-19}}</ref> 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. His work in this area is part of a broader approach to economics known as institutionalist political economy which places economic history and socio-political factors at the centre of the evolution of economic practices.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/development-policy-and-history-lessons-from-the-green-revolution|title=Development policy and history: lessons from the Green Revolution|last=Harwood|first=Jonathan|date=14 June 2013|website=History & Policy|access-date=27 July 2016}}</ref>

==Writing==

=== ''Kicking Away the Ladder'' === {{Main|Kicking Away the Ladder}} In his book ''Kicking Away the Ladder'', 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, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund 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.

The book won the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy's 2003 Gunnar Myrdal Prize and the 2005 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought from the Global Development and Environment Institute (previous prize-winners include Amartya Sen, John Kenneth Galbraith, Herman Daly, Alice Amsden and Robert Wade).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/about_us/leontief.html|title=GDAE Leontief}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Chang |first=Ha-Joon |date=2006-04-01 |title=Curriculum Vitae |url=https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/faculty/chang/cv.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060516140826/http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/faculty/chang/cv.pdf |archive-date=2006-05-16 |access-date=2022-09-19 |website=University of Cambridge}}</ref>

=== ''Bad Samaritans'' === {{Main|Bad Samaritans (book)}}

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.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Chang |first1=Ha-Joon |title=Protecting the global poor |url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/essays/51895/protecting-the-global-poor |work=Prospect |date=27 July 2007 }}</ref>

=== ''23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism'' === {{Main|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.{{fact|date=August 2025}}

=== ''Economics: The User's Guide'' === Chang's 2014 book, ''Economics: The User's Guide'', is an introduction to economics, written for the general public.<ref name="varsity">{{cite web | url=http://www.varsity.co.uk/news/6929 | title=Interview: Ha-Joon Chang | website=Varsity | date=19 February 2014}}</ref>

==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) {{ISBN|978-0-33359-709-5}} * ''Financial Liberalization and the Asian Crisis'' (Palgrave Macmillan; 2001) * ''[https://archive.org/details/josephstiglitzwo0000unse Joseph Stiglitz and the World Bank: The Rebel Within]'' (collection of Stiglitz speeches) (Anthem; 2001) {{ISBN|978-1-89885-553-8}} * ''Kicking Away The Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective'' (Anthem; 2002) {{ISBN|978-1-84331-027-3}} * ''Globalization, Economic Development, and the Role of the State'' (essay collection) (Zed Books; 2002) {{ISBN|978-1-84277-143-3}} * ''Restructuring Korea Inc.'' (with Jang-Sup Shin) (Routledge; 2003) {{ISBN|978-0-415-27865-2}} * ''Reclaiming Development: An Alternative Economic Policy Manual'' (with Ilene Grabel) (Zed; 2004) {{ISBN|978-1-84277-201-0}} * ''The Politics of Trade and Industrial Policy in Africa: Forced Consensus'' (edited with Charles Chukwuma Soludo & Osita Ogbu) (Africa World Press; 2004) {{ISBN|978-1592211654}} * ''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) {{ISBN|978-89-85989-83-1}} * ''The East Asian Development Experience: The Miracle, the Crisis and the Future'' (Zed; 2007) {{ISBN|978-1-84277-141-9}} * ''Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism'' (Bloomsbury; 2008) {{ISBN|978-1-59691-598-5}} * ''23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism'' (Penguin Books Ltd; 2010) {{ISBN|978-1-60819-166-6}} * ''Economics: The User's Guide'' (Pelican Books; 2014) {{ISBN|978-0718197032}} * ''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 * ''[https://atpsnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/technopolicy_brief_series_1.pdf Who Benefits from the New International Intellectual Property Rights Regime?: And what Should Africa Do?]'', ATPSN, 2001 * [http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/News/Chang%20AfDB%20lecture%20text.pdfic ''Economic History of the Developed World: Lessons for Africa Economic History of the Developed World: Lessons for Africa'']{{Dead link|date=July 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, 2009. * ''[http://www.iea-world.org/docs/Chang.pdf Industrial Policy: Can Africa do it?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304103519/http://www.iea-world.org/docs/Chang.pdf |date=4 March 2016 }}'', July 2012. * ''Institutional Change and Economic Development'', Tokyo 2007. * ''[http://www.fpif.org/reports/kicking_away_the_ladder_the_real_history_of_free_trade Kicking Away the Ladder: The "Real" History of Free Trade]'', ''Foreign Policy'', 30 December 2003 * ''[http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/ffd/2003/03historical.htm "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, 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hajoonchang.net/my-background/ |title = My Background {{!}} Ha-Joon Chang}}</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|Biography|Economics|Capitalism}} * Capitalism * Criticism of capitalism * Miracle on the Han River {{clear}}

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== {{wikiquote}} * [http://www.hajoonchang.net/ Ha-Joon Chang] ''official website'' * [https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/ha-joon-chang Ha-Joon Chang] Ha-Joon Chang - SOAS * [https://www.theguardian.com/profile/hajoonchang Column archive] at ''The Guardian'' * {{C-SPAN|1027339}} * {{IMDb name|3951847}} * {{cite news |author=Lartigue Jr. |first=Casey |url=http://eng.cfe.org/mboard/bbsDetail.asp?cid=mn1309270313&idx=2017 |title=Chang Ha-Joon Resource Center: Links and summaries of analysis from his critics |publisher=Center for Free Enterprise |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007191325/http://eng.cfe.org/mboard/bbsDetail.asp?cid=mn1309270313&idx=2017 |archive-date=7 October 2011 |df=dmy-all}}

'''Interviews''' * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5-ojv5-b3U "Why the World Isn't Flat"] video of Ha-Joon Chang lecture for the New America Foundation, 4 February 2008 * [http://www.koreasociety.org/dmdocuments/2008-5-28-ha-joon-chang.mp3 Korea Society Podcast: Ha-Joon Chang Discusses ''Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303191739/http://www.koreasociety.org/dmdocuments/2008-5-28-ha-joon-chang.mp3 |date=3 March 2016 }}, 28 May 2008 * [http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/10/economist_ha_joon_chang_on_the "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) * [http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2010/11/12/economist_ha_joon_chang_on_the_g20_summit_currency_wars_and_why_the_free_market_is_a_myth 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 * [http://www.economia.rai.it/articoli/ha-joon-chang-il-libero-mercato-non-esiste/16258/default.aspx Ha-Joon Chang on RAI Economy portal] * [https://www.ft.com/content/27a2027e-5698-11e3-8cca-00144feabdc0 Lunch with the FT: Ha-Joon Chang]

{{instecon}} {{Critique of political economy}} {{Authority control}}

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