Ha-Joon Chang on How Change Happens

October 18, 2016
October is upon us, and with it the publication of How Change Happens on the 27th. I am already suffering about my levels of authorial self-obsession: I entered the personal shorthand of ‘Narcissistic Peak’ for launch day, unaware that my diary synchs with my wife’s Ipad. Cathy hasn’t let me forget it. But given the surprising results of my precautionary
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Industrial Policy meets Doing Development Differently: an evening at SOAS

March 17, 2016
It’s always interesting when a neglected issue suddenly resurfaces in multiple locations. That’s been happening with industrial policy – in particular the role of governments in developing their manufacturing industries. ActionAid has a new report out, arguing that promoting manufacturing through industrial policy is essential if countries want to generate decent work and tackling inequality. Then I went to a
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What would a global campaign on production and industrial policy look like?

November 8, 2012
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Limits to history’s lessons: What’s missing from Ha-Joon Chang’s take on agricultural policy? Guest post by Sally Baden

March 15, 2012
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The defenders of capitalism should have more faith – response by Ha-Joon Chang and me to critics of the Robin Hood Tax

October 18, 2011
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Can South Africa build a developmental state?

September 1, 2011
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Robin Hood: the long view from Ha-Joon Chang (and me)

April 19, 2011
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Ha-Joon Chang’s new book: 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism

September 14, 2010
I still remember watching with delight as Ha-Joon Chang kebabed a US trade negotiator, shortly after the launch of the WTO’s Doha round of negotiations. At one of those ‘schmooze the NGOs’ sessions in Geneva, the diplomat was explaining to us the folly of governments ‘picking winners’ – industrial policy. Those who did so were doomed to fail, apparently. From
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Ha-Joon Chang uncovers what’s worked in the history of agricultural policy

November 16, 2009
I vividly remember the impact of Ha-Joon Chang’s 2002 book ‘Kicking Away the Ladder’. At the time I was an NGO lobbyist on the WTO’s Doha round of trade talks, and Ha-Joon’s book showed how when they were still poor, today’s rich countries had systematically used the industrial policies and other forms of state management of the economy that they
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