Quotes by Ha-Joon Chang

About Ha-Joon Chang:

Ha-Joon Chang is a 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 (2002). Chang was ranked by Prospect magazine as one of the top 20 World Thinkers in 2013.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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...

Ha-Joon Chang

People tend to think that numbers are quite objective, but numbers in economics are not like this. Some economists say they're like sausages: you don't know what they really are until you cut into them.

Ha-Joon Chang

When I was growing up in South Korea in the '70s and early '80s, the country was too poor to buy original records. Everything was bootlegged.

Ha-Joon Chang

Why do tax havens exist? Because rich countries allow them to. If the U.S. came down on tax havens in the same way they come down on countries that trade with Iran and Cuba, we'd have no tax havens in the world.

Ha-Joon Chang

When we assess the impact of technological changes, we tend to downplay things that happened a while ago.

Ha-Joon Chang

Democracy, despite its limitations, is in the end the only way to ensure that policies do not simply benefit the privileged few.

Ha-Joon Chang

Free market economists frequently see minimum wage legislation as mere political intervention. However, there are decent economic theories which show that, under certain circumstances, minimum wages can be beneficial, as it makes workers more product...

Ha-Joon Chang

I don't drink at lunchtime because I'm very weak at alcohol like most Asians.

Ha-Joon Chang

I used to joke that I came to England - not to the U.S. where most Koreans go - because I like Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.

Ha-Joon Chang

It is one thing to tell the citizens of some faraway country to go to hell, but it is another to do the same to your own citizens, who are supposedly your ultimate sovereigns.

Ha-Joon Chang

Overcoming the myth that there is such a thing as an objectively defined 'free market' is the first step towards understanding capitalism.

Ha-Joon Chang

I am one of the most successful economists, according to what markets tell us, though most of my professional colleagues, who are much keener to accept market outcomes than I am, would dismiss me as a crank or - the worst of all abuses among economis...

Ha-Joon Chang

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 bee...

Ha-Joon Chang

Gone are the days when the upper classes were terrified of the angry mob wanting to smash their skulls and confiscate their properties. Now their biggest enemy is the army of lazy bums, whose lifestyle of indolence and hedonism, financed by crippling...

Ha-Joon Chang

Few countries have become rich through free-trade, free-market policies, and few ever will.

Ha-Joon Chang

Contrary to what many people believe, the welfare state was originally a 'rightwing' invention. It was the arch-conservative Otton von Bismarck who first introduced it. Bismarck hated socialism, but he wasn't an ideologue. He basically figured out th...

Ha-Joon Chang

Indeed, willingness to challenge professional economists and other experts is a foundation stone of democracy. If all we have to do is to listen to the experts, what is the point of having democracy?

Ha-Joon Chang

Patent monopoly creates a lot of problems. It allows the patentee to charge the maximum to consumers. This may not be a problem if the patented product is a luxury item, like parts that go into a smartphone, but can violate basic human rights if it i...

Ha-Joon Chang

Very often, the judgments by ordinary citizens may be better than those by professional economists, being more rooted in reality and less narrowly focused.

Ha-Joon Chang

Without there being some national strategy, it is difficult for educators to know what kinds of engineers or technicians to produce and for potential students to know what professions to study for.

Ha-Joon Chang

Economics should be defined in terms of what it is about. It should be about how people produce things, how people exchange them, how people earn income, how they pay taxes, how the government provides infrastructure with tax revenue, and how it cond...

Ha-Joon Chang

Author Bio

  • NameHa-Joon Chang
  • DescriptionEconomist
  • BornOctober 7, 1963
  • CountrySouth Korea
  • ProfessionEconomist