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
different way very-good
There are different ways to organise capitalism. Free-market capitalism is only one of them-and not a very good one at that.
capitalist-economy justice goal
Between the Great Depression and the 1970s, private business was viewed with suspicion even in most capitalist economies. Businesses were, so the story goes, seen as anti-social agents whose profit-seeking needed to be restrained for other, supposedly loftier, goals, such as justice, social harmony, protection of the weak and even national glory.
important prosperity manufacturing
Manufacturing is the most important ... route to prosperity.
free-market
There is no such thing as a free market.
economic form worst
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, capitalism is the worst economic system except for all the other forms.
important-events printing invention
The invention of the printing press was one of the most important events in human history.
democracy doe free-market
Democracy is acceptable to neo-liberals only in so far as it does not contradict the free market.
smart enough
We are not smart enough to leave things to the market.
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.
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.
beings buy cannot child economic ethical exchange human labour legal markets objects says sell theory totally
A lot of things that we cannot buy and sell in markets used to be totally legal objects of market exchange - human beings when we had slavery, child labour, human organs, and so on. So there is no economic theory that actually says that you shouldn't have slavery or child labour because all these are political, ethical judgments.
assess tend
When we assess the impact of technological changes, we tend to downplay things that happened a while ago.