Ha-Joon Chang

Ha-Joon Chang (b. South Korea in 1963) is one of the world's foremost heterodox economists specialising in development economics. Trained at the University of Cambridge, where he currently works as a Reader in the Political Economy of Development, Chang is the author of several influential policy books, including 2002's "Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective". [cite website | title=Ha-Joon Chang's home page | url=http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/faculty/chang/ | publisher=University of Cambridge | date=19 Oct 2007 | accessdate=2007-10-19] [cite website | title=Article summarising "Kicking Away the Ladder" book | url=http://www.paecon.net/PAEtexts/Chang1.htm | publisher=Post-Autistic Economics Review | date=14 Sept 2002 | accessdate=2007-10-19] [cite paper | title=A paper by Chang summarising much of "Kicking Away the Ladder" | url=http://www.fpif.org/papers/03trade/index.html | publisher=Foreign Policy In Focus | date=April 2003 | accessdate=2007-10-19]

He has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Investment Bank as well as to Oxfam [cite paper | 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 | publisher=Oxfam International/South Centre | date=Nov 2005 | accessdate=2007-10-19] and various United Nations agencies. [cite paper |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 | publisher=The World Institute for Development Economics Research/United Nations University | date=July 2006 | accessdate=2007-10-19] He is also a fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research [cite website | title=CEPR Senior Research Partners | url=http://www.cepr.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1026&Itemid=153#chang | publisher=Center for Economic and Policy Research | date=19 Oct 2007 | accessdate=2007-10-19] in Washington, D.C.

Chang is also famous for being one of the crucial academic influences on the economist Rafael Correa, currently President of Ecuador. [cite website | author=Rafael Correa | title=El sofisma del libre comercio | url=http://www.lainsignia.org/2006/mayo/econ_018.htm | publisher=La Insignia | date= 20 May 2006 | accessdate=2007-10-19] [cite website | author=Mónica Almeida | title=Ecuador debe planificar su propio modelo de desarrollo | url=http://www.eluniverso.com/2007/09/23/0001/9/EC7E0CEDEA434BF99F0D401B91C87DB2.aspx | publisher=EL Universo | date= 23 Sept 2007 | accessdate=2007-10-19]

Background

Chang´s contribution to heterodox economics started while studying under Robert Rowthorn, a leading British Marxist economist, [cite website | author=Bob Rowthorn | title=Neo-Classicism, Neo-Ricardianism and Marxism | url=http://www.newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=1322 | publisher=New Left Review | date= July-Aug 1974 | accessdate=2007-10-19] with whom he worked on the elaboration of the theory of industrial policy, a middle-way between central planning and the unrestrained free-market. His work in this area led to the elaboration of a broader approach to economics Chang calls institutionalist political economy which places economic history and socio-political factors at the centre of the evolution of economic practices.

"Books"

In his book " Kicking Away the Ladder " (which won the 2003 Gunnar Myrdal Prize), 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 similarly. The WTO, World Bank and IMF come in for strong criticism for this kind of ladder-kicking which is, according to Chang, 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, John Kenneth Galbraith and Herman Daly). [http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/about_us/leontief.html] [http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/faculty/chang/cv.pdf#search=%22rowthorn%20%22ha-joon%20chang%22%22]

Following up on the ideas of "Kicking Away the Ladder", Chang published " Bad Samaritans: Rich Nations, Poor Policies and the Threat to the Developing World " in December 2007. [cite magazine | author=Ha-Joon Chang | title=Protecting the global poor | url=http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=9653 | publisher=Prospect | date= July-2007 | accessdate=2008-02-18] . Chang argues that unregulated international trade (free markets) has very rarely succeeded in producing economic development, and has a far worse record compared to interventionist policies. He cites evidence that GDP growth in developing countries was higher prior to external pressures recommending deregulation and extends his analysis of the failures of free trade to induce growth through privatisation and anti-inflationary policies. The book is sometimes confused with an earlier book criticising unregulated free trade "Bad Samaritans: First World Ethics and Third World Debt" (1990) by the development activist Paul Vallely which is a political rather than economic critique. Chang's book won plaudits from Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

References

External links

* [http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,16781,1664984,00.html Two countries, one booming, one struggling: which one followed the free-trade route? A look at Vietnam and Mexico exposes the myth of market liberalisation.]
* [http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3393 The Debacle of Doha] Article by Walden Bello using Chang's 'kicking away the ladder of development' image.
* [http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/ffd/2003/03historical.htm Foreign Investment Regulation in Historical Perspective Lessons for the Proposed WTO Investment Agreement]

Persondata
NAME = Chang, Ha-Joon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Economist
DATE OF BIRTH = 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH = South Korea
DATE OF DEATH =
PLACE OF DEATH =