Ha-joon Chang citations

Ha-joon Chang, né le 7 octobre 1963 en Corée du Sud, est un économiste hétérodoxe de premier plan, spécialisé en économie du développement. Il enseigne actuellement l'économie politique du développement à l'université de Cambridge. Il est l'auteur de nombreux livres influents, dont Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective , qui a gagné en 2003 le prix Gunnar Myrdal décerné par la European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy .

L'un des principaux disciples de Joseph Stiglitz, Ha-joon Chang a travaillé comme consultant pour la Banque mondiale, pour la Banque asiatique de développement, pour la Banque européenne d'investissement, pour diverses agences des Nations unies et pour l'ONG Oxfam. Il est aussi membre du Center for Economic and Policy Research à Washington, D.C.

Il a reçu en 2005 pour l'ensemble de son œuvre le prix Léontieff pour l'avancement des limites de la pensée économique décerné par le Global Development and Environment Institute.

Après des études d'économie à l'université nationale de Séoul puis à l'université de Cambridge, Ha-joon Chang a d'abord travaillé avec son ancien professeur Robert Rowthorn, d'influence marxiste, à élaborer les fondements théoriques d'une politique économique industrielle à mi-chemin entre la planification centralisée et le marché complètement dérégulé. Comme ces premiers travaux, l'ensemble de son œuvre s'inscrit dans le courant de pensée économique baptisé institutionnalisme. Ce courant considère qu'il est crucial d'analyser l'histoire économique ainsi que les conditions socio-politiques de l'activité économique pour comprendre les mécanismes qui régissent l'économie.

Dans son livre Kicking Away the Ladder, Chang explique que la quasi-totalité des pays développés se sont enrichis en menant des politiques massivement interventionnistes et protectionnistes. Il pointe ainsi l'inconséquence ou l'hypocrisie qu'il y a à exiger des pays en voie de développement qu'ils ouvrent leurs marchés et privatisent leur économie, arguant que les politiques néolibérales imposées à ces pays au nom du développement sont en fait précisément ce qui les empêche de se développer.

Il approfondit cette idée dans son livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism, paru en 2008. Dans cet ouvrage, Chang montre que l'ouverture complète des frontières commerciales n'a que très rarement fonctionné comme stratégie de développement, et que l'interventionnisme économique produit de bien meilleurs résultats en ce qui concerne la croissance et la sortie de l'extrême pauvreté.

Dans son dernier livre, 23 Things They Don't Tell You about Capitalism , Chang se propose de critiquer en des mots simples une série de 23 idées reçues typiques de la pensée néolibérale. Il explique par exemple qu'il n'existe pas de marché libre , que le capital a bien une identité nationale , que les habitants des pays pauvres sont plus entreprenants que ceux des pays riches ou encore que malgré la chute du communisme, nous vivons toujours dans des économies planifiées . Wikipedia  

✵ 7. octobre 1963
Ha-joon Chang photo
Ha-joon Chang: 44   citations 0   J'aime

Ha-joon Chang: Citations en anglais

“The history of capitalism has been so totally re-written that many people in the rich world do not perceive the historical double standards involved in recommending free trade and free market to developing countries.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Prologue, p. 16
Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008)

“He is over-protected and needs to be exposed to competition, so that he can become a more productive person.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Source: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008), Ch. 3: 'My six-year-old son should get a job; Is free trade always the answer?', p. 65
Contexte: I have a six-year-old son. His name is Jin-Gyu. He lives off me, yet he is quite capable of making a living. I pay for his lodging, food, education and health care. But millions of children of his age already have jobs. Daniel Defoe, in the 18th century, thought that children could earn a living from the age of four.
Moreover, working might do Jin-Gyu's character a world of good. Right now he lives in an economic bubble with no sense of the value of money. He has zero appreciation of the efforts his mother and I make on his behalf, subsidizing his idle existence and cocooning him from harsh reality. He is over-protected and needs to be exposed to competition, so that he can become a more productive person. Thinking about it, the more competition he is exposed to and the sooner this is done, the better it will be for his future development. It will whip him into a mentality that is ready for hard work. I should make him quit school and get a job. Perhaps I could move to a country where child labour is still tolerated, if not legal, to give him more choice in employment.

“Trade is simply too important for economic development to be left to free trade economists.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Source: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008), Ch. 3, More trade, fewer ideologies, p. 83
Contexte: The importance of international trade for economic development cannot be overemphasized. But free trade is not the best path to economic development. Trade helps economic development only when the country employs a mixture of protection and open trade, constantly adjusting it according to its changing needs and capabilities. Trade is simply too important for economic development to be left to free trade economists.

“Health warning: On no account drink only one ingredient – liable to lead to tunnel vision, arrogance and possibly brain death.”

Source: Economics: The User's Guide (2014), Ch. 4: "Let a hundred flowers bloom: How to 'do' economics"
Contexte: ECONOMICS COCKTAILS. Ingredients: Austrian, Behaviouralist, Classical, Developmentalist, Institutionalist, Keynesian, Marxist, Neoclassical and Schumpeterian. [... ] Health warning: On no account drink only one ingredient – liable to lead to tunnel vision, arrogance and possibly brain death.

“Unless we find a solution to the problem of interlocking patents, the patent system may actually impede the very innovation it was designed to encourage.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Source: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008), Ch. 6, The tyranny of interlocking patents, p. 128
Contexte: The days are over when technology can be advanced in laboratories by individual scientists alone. Now you need an army of lawyers to negotiate the hazardous terrain of interlocking patents. Unless we find a solution to the problem of interlocking patents, the patent system may actually impede the very innovation it was designed to encourage.

“Rich countries have 'kicked away the ladder' by forcing free-market, free-trade policies on poor countries.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Source: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008), Ch. 2, Learning the right lessons from history, p. 61
Contexte: Rich countries have 'kicked away the ladder' by forcing free-market, free-trade policies on poor countries. Already established countries do not want more competitors emerging through the nationalistic policies they themselves successfully used in the past.

“Keynesianism for the rich countries and monetarism for the poor”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Source: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008), Ch. 7, Keynesianism for the rich, monetarism for the poor, p. 158
Contexte: Gore Vidal, the American writer, once described the American economic system as 'free enterprise for the poor and socialism for the rich'. Macroeconomic policy on the global scale is a bit like that. It is Keynesianism for the rich countries and monetarism for the poor.

“If they want to leave poverty behind, they have to defy the market”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Source: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008), Ch. 9, Defying the market, p. 210
Contexte: Markets have a strong tendency to reinforce the status quo. The free market dictates that countries stick to what they are already good at. Stated bluntly, this means that poor countries are supposed to continue with their current engagement in low-productivity activities. But their engagement in those activities is exactly what makes them poor. If they want to leave poverty behind, they have to defy the market and do the more difficult things that bring them higher incomes—there are no two ways about it.

“Not all countries have succeeded through protection and subsidies, but few have done so without them.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Prologue, p. 17
Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008)
Contexte: Britain and the US are not the homes of free trade; in fact, for a long time they were the most protectionist countries in the world. Not all countries have succeeded through protection and subsidies, but few have done so without them. For developing countries, free trade has a rarely been a matter of choice; it was often an imposition from outside, sometimes even through military power. Most of them did very poorly under free trade; they did much better when they used protection and subsidies. The best-performing economies have been those that opened up their economies selectively and gradually. Neo-liberal free-trade free-market policy claims to sacrifice equity for growth, but in fact it achieves neither; growth has slowed down in the past two and a half decades when markets were freed and borders opened.

“Unlike what neo-liberals say, market and democracy clash at a fundamental level. Democracy runs on the principle of 'one man (one person), one vote'. The market runs on the principle of 'one dollar, one vote'.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Source: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008), Ch. 8, Democracy and the free market, p. 172
Contexte: Unlike what neo-liberals say, market and democracy clash at a fundamental level. Democracy runs on the principle of 'one man (one person), one vote'. The market runs on the principle of 'one dollar, one vote'. Naturally, the former gives equal weight to each person, regardless of the money she/he has. The latter give greater weight to richer people. Therefore, democratic decisions usually subvert the logic of market.

“People 'over-produce' pollution because they are not paying for the costs of dealing with it.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Source: 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

“The best way to boost the economy is to redistribute wealth downward, as poorer people tend to spend a higher proportion of their income.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Source: 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

“We are not smart enough to leave things to the market.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Thing 16
23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism (2010)

“Corruption exists because there is too much, not too little, market.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Prologue, p. 18
Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008)
Variante: Corruption often exists because there are too many market forces, not too few.

“Being told by the IMF to go easy on austerity is like being told by the Spanish Inquisition to be more tolerant of heretics.”

"Watch out, George Osborne: Smith, Marx and even the IMF are after you" http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/08/osborne-marx-imf-austerity-democracy, The Guardian, 8 May 2013.

“The Korean economic miracle was the result of a clever and pragmatic mixture of market incentives and state direction.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Prologue, p. 15
Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008)

“Countries are poor not because their people are lazy; their people are 'lazy' because they are poor.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Prologue, p. 18
Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008)

“Assume the worst about people and you get the worst.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Thing 5
23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism (2010)

“There is no hard and fast rule as to what makes a successful state-owned enterprise. Therefore, when it comes to SOE management, we need a pragmatic attitude in the spirit of the famous remark by China’s former leader Deng Xiao-ping: 'it does not matter whether the cat is white or black as long as it catches mice.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Source: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008), Ch. 5, Black cat, white cat, p. 121

“Democracy is acceptable to neo-liberals only in so far as it does not contradict the free market.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Source: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008), Ch. 8, Democracy and the free market, p. 176

“Financial markets need to become less, not more, efficient.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Thing 22
23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism (2010)

“95% of Economics is common sense deliberately made complicated.”

Lecture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whVf5tuVbus at the RSA about his book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, September 2010.

“There is a big logical jump between acknowledging the destructive nature of hyperinflation and arguing that the lower the rate of inflation, the better.”

Ha-Joon Chang livre Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Source: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008), Ch. 7, There is inflation and there is inflation, p. 150

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