Ha-Joon Chang is a South Korean institutional economist, specialising in development economics.
14 Facts About Ha-Joon Chang
2.
Ha-Joon Chang has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, as well as to Oxfam and various United Nations agencies.
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Ha-Joon Chang is a fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC In addition, Chang serves on the advisory board of Academics Stand Against Poverty.
4.
The World Trade Organization, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund come in for strong criticism from Ha-Joon Chang for "ladder-kicking" of this type which, he argues, is the fundamental obstacle to poverty alleviation in the developing world.
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Ha-Joon Chang only looks at countries that developed during the nineteenth century and a small number of the policies they pursued.
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Ha-Joon Chang did not examine countries that failed to develop in the nineteenth century and see if they pursued the same heterodox policies only more intensively.
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Ha-Joon Chang countered Irwin's criticisms by arguing that countries that had failed to develop had generally followed free market policies.
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Ha-Joon Chang argued that while state interventionism sometimes produced economic failures, it had a better record than unregulated free market economies which, he maintained, very rarely succeeded in producing economic development.
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Ha-Joon Chang 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-inflationary policies.
10.
Ha-Joon Chang responded to Easterly's criticisms, asserting that Easterly misread his argument.
11.
Ha-Joon Chang has examined a large body of historical material to reach some very interesting and important conclusions about institutions and economic development.
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Not only is the historical picture re-examined, but Ha-Joon Chang uses this to argue the need for a changing attitude to the institutions desired in today's developing nations.
13.
Ha-Joon Chang's 2014 book, Economics: The User's Guide, is an introduction to economics, written for the general public.
14.
Ha-Joon Chang 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.