Question 1

Who is Ha-Joon Chang and why is he important for understanding the global economy?

Accepted Answer

Ha-Joon Chang is a South Korean economist born in 1963 in Seoul, and is today a professor at SOAS in London. What's key to remember is that he grew up in a South Korea that was then poorer than Ethiopia, and he saw with his own eyes how a proactive state could transform a country into an industrial giant. He is best known for demonstrating that rich countries, such as the United States and Britain, made massive use of protectionism before preaching free trade to others. His book Kicking Away the Ladder (2002) earned him the Gunnar Myrdal Prize and changed the way the history of development is taught.

Question 2

Why is the title “Kicking Away the Ladder” such a powerful metaphor?

Accepted Answer

The image comes from the German economist Friedrich List in the 19th century: imagine that the rich countries climbed to the top of a wall using a ladder (protectionism), and once at the top, they kick the ladder away to stop others from climbing up. What makes this metaphor so decisive is that it captures the historical injustice that Chang denounces: today's rules of global trade, imposed by the IMF and the WTO, forbid poor countries from using the very same methods that allowed the rich ones to industrialize. It's a bit as if the teacher changed the rules of the exam after having cheated themselves.

Question 3

What is the main message of “Bad Samaritans”?

Accepted Answer

In Bad Samaritans (2007), Chang criticizes the free trade imposed on developing countries. To understand this, you have to remember that he uses a parable: just as we don't send a six-year-old child out into the labor market but protect them so they can grow up, the infant industries of poor countries need temporary protection. What's striking here is that the rich countries, behaving like “bad Samaritans,” demand that others open up completely to competition, when they themselves never did so. The book has become a key reference for critics of neoliberal globalization.

Question 4

How does Ha-Joon Chang explain economics through food in “Edible Economics”?

Accepted Answer

Published in 2022, Edible Economics is an original book where each chapter opens with a food item — from okra to the anchovy — to introduce an economic idea. For example, the anchovy, a modest little fish yet essential in Mediterranean cooking, helps him illustrate how small economies can play an important role in world trade. What we often forget is that Chang is a passionate cook, and he believes that sharing a meal is also a way of understanding societies. This book makes economics accessible and flavorful, exactly like a good dish.

Question 5

What personal anecdote most influenced Chang's thinking?

Accepted Answer

The key to his thinking is that he grew up in the South Korea of the 1960s and 1970s, a country then poorer than many African nations, and that he watched this same country transform itself within a few decades into a giant of the electronics and automotive industries. This lived experience runs through all of his work: he observed that the South Korean state, under the leadership of Park Chung-hee, had steered industrialization with high tariffs and subsidies. He likes to say that, without this developmentalism, Korea would have remained an agricultural country. What sets Chang apart from orthodox economists is that he doesn't talk about abstract theories, but about what he saw with his own eyes.

Question 6

What everyday objects does Chang use to make economic concepts understandable?

Accepted Answer

He notably uses the washing machine: contrary to what people believe, it isn't the Internet that changed the world the most, but the washing machine, because it freed up a considerable amount of domestic working time, especially for women. What's key to remember is that this simple object illustrates how technical progress can transform society more profoundly than digital technologies. In 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism (2010), he delights in demolishing the received idea that “the washing machine has changed the world more than the Internet.” He also uses the ladder as a symbol of the injustice of development.

Question 7

What does the word “heterodox” mean when describing Chang's thinking?

Accepted Answer

To be heterodox is to depart from the dominant school of thought, known as the orthodox one. In economics, the orthodoxy is neoliberalism, which advocates free trade, privatization, and a minimal state. Chang is heterodox because he defends the active role of the state, temporary protectionism, and industrial policy. To understand this, you have to remember that most economists at the major universities teach that the free market is the solution, whereas Chang shows that the countries that succeeded (the United States, Germany, Japan, Korea) all relied on state intervention. What makes his approach distinctive is that it draws on real history, not on mathematical models.

Question 8

What impact did the 1997 Asian financial crisis have on Chang's thinking?

Accepted Answer

The Asian financial crisis of 1997 was a turning point. The IMF imposed drastic liberal reforms on South Korea — privatizations, the opening of markets, interest rate hikes — which Chang sharply criticized. What's striking here is that these reforms, far from solving the crisis, deepened the recession and poverty. For Chang, this crisis confirmed that the neoliberalism imposed by international institutions was dangerous. He then wrote Kicking Away the Ladder to show that developed countries were using the crisis to force poor countries to open their markets, exactly as they had done with Latin America in the 1980s.

Question 9

What are the key places in Ha-Joon Chang's life and why do they matter?

Accepted Answer

The first key place is Seoul, his hometown, where he grew up during Korea's industrial take-off. Next comes Seoul National University, where he did his first studies in economics. Then the University of Cambridge, where he earned his doctorate and taught for nearly thirty years. What sets these places apart is that they illustrate the journey of a child from a poor country who became a professor at one of the world's most prestigious universities. Finally, SOAS in London, which he joined in 2021, a school specializing in development studies, which fits perfectly with his research on economic development.

Question 10

What does a typical day in the life of Ha-Joon Chang look like?

Accepted Answer

His morning begins with reading the international economic press and replying to emails, often over a coffee. The afternoon is devoted to teaching, research meetings, and supervising doctoral students. In the evening, he cooks — his great passion — and takes part in lectures or debates. What's key to remember is that his daily life resembles that of many academics, but with an added passion for gastronomy, which even led him to write a book in which each dish explains an economic idea. He lives in Cambridge and then London, in a townhouse surrounded by books.

Question 11

What is Chang's most famous quote and what does it mean?

Accepted Answer

One of his best-known quotes is: “There is no such thing as a free market. Every market has some rules and boundaries that restrict freedom of choice.” (from 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism). What we often forget is that this sentence sums up his central critique: the market is never “natural” or “free” — it is always built by laws, institutions, and power relations. For Chang, those who preach free trade forget that they are the ones who set the rules, often to their own advantage. It is a call not to take talk of economic freedom at face value.

Ha-Joon Chang(1963 — ?)

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