Ha-Joon Chang
Ha-Joon Chang
Ha-Joon Changis a South Korean institutional economist specialising in development economics. Currently a reader in the Political Economy of Development at the University of Cambridge, Chang is the author of several widely discussed policy books, most notably Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective. Chang was ranked by Prospect magazine as one of the top 20 World Thinkers in 2013...
NationalitySouth Korean
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth7 October 1963
smart enough
We are not smart enough to leave things to the market.
block balance democracy
Democracy and markets are both fundamental building blocks for a decent society. But they clash at a fundamental level. We need to balance them.
corruption force
Corruption often exists because there are too many market forces, not too few.
development foundation acquisition
The foundation of economic development is the acquisition of more productive knowledge.
army technology innovation
The days are over when technology can be advanced in laboratories by individual scientists alone. Now you need an army of lawyers to negotiate the hazardous terrain of interlocking patents. Unless we find a solution to the problem of interlocking patents, the patent system may actually impede the very innovation it was designed to encourage.
real unique keys
All the alleged key causes of SOE [State-Owned Enterprise] inefficiency the principal-agent problem, the free-rider problem and the soft budget constraint are, while real, not unique to state-owned enterprises. Large private-sector firms with dispersed ownership also suffer from the principal-agent problem and the free-rider problem. So, in these two areas, forms of ownership do matter, but the critical divide is not between state and private ownership it is between concentrated and dispersed ownerships.
sides regulators
History is on the side of the regulators.
environment economic currents
It's not just about the current economic environment. History shows that slashing budgets always leads to recession.
government development may
Low inflation and government prudence may be harmful for economic development.
littles too-much corruption
Corruption exists because there is too much, not too little, market.
abolish domestic goods helping household liberating machine society structure washing women work
By liberating women from household work and helping to abolish professions such as domestic service, the washing machine and other household goods completely revolutionised the structure of society.
lunchtime
I don't drink at lunchtime because I'm very weak at alcohol like most Asians.
black central few free quite reviews
I've read quite a few readers' reviews of my book on Amazon, saying, 'Ah, he criticises the free market, he advocates central planning.' I don't do that for a minute! But this is our black and white, dichotomous way of thinking - which has really been harmful.
accept boundaries fail freedom looks market restrict underlying
Every market has some rules and boundaries that restrict freedom of choice. A market looks free only because we so unconditionally accept its underlying restrictions that we fail to see them.