Ha-Joon Chang

One of the more popular lines about economists is, "an economist is a person who sees something working in practice and wonders if they could make it work in theory." Never is this more true than in the world of development economics, where individuals from all sides of politics tend to make grand theoretical pronouncements to explain the success of this or that country. Neo-liberals argue that free trade and privatisation are the only way for a nation to develop, because the theory of show more economics teaches us that when a trade takes place, everybody wins. Anti-colonial leftists argue that self-determination and grass-roots development are essential because they economically empower previously disempowered peoples.

In this book, Ha-Joon Chang dismisses the neoliberal theoretical approach (and doesn't address the less economically focused leftist one). Instead, he opts for a plan for development based on a reading of history. As a current student of economics, I can vouch for the lack of knowledge of economic history among economists graduating today. This is a very dangerous situation because it makes economists susceptible to believing glib statements about the world that don't have any evidence to back them up. Although in some regards economics is a technical discipline (graphs! statistics! regression analysis!), it is still a social science and is thus founded on untestable principles. For instance, the idea of comparative advantage (look it up on wikipedia!) is wonderfully elegant way of explaining how transactions work to benefit both parties. However, Chang argues, the evidence indicates that there is a flaw in the idea, which makes it less attractive, more complex, but historically more accurate. He also points out many other points of history that are assumed by neoliberals (eg. the US and Great Britain through free trade) but are not supported by historical records (eg. they actually adopted free trade only after getting rich).

The book is written in an engaging style and provides a very interesting history lesson. I found it inspiring and it has further reinforced my belief that economic history is a subject much more important than it is given credit for. show less

This has been, so far, my least favourite book from a Marx Memorial Library reading list. It may be that Mr Chang believes capitalism to be an on going system, seemingly never to end, whilst I have positioned myself with those who believe it to be nearing its demise. It may be that, writing in 2010, Mr Chang seems to have genuinely believed that the financial crash of 2008 would see major adjustments to the Neoliberal system whereas, we know that short term brakes put on the 'free economy' show more were dismantled at the first possible opportunity. Whatever the cause, this plea for a 'play nice' capitalism looks more pie in the sky than to ask for a revolution tomorrow (What are you doing around 6pm tomorrow?).

Having poured so much cold water upon this book, I did find many interesting dissections of free market economics and indeed, the whole of economics.

This book is not a hard read - I managed it within three days - so, I would recommend it but, with reservations. show less

I was not familiar with Ha-Joon Chang and, to be perfectly honest, I'm leery of economics books that try to dumb down their content for their masses, which is what I thought this book would be. We already have a bunch of pseudo-economic fast-food like books that try to wrap ideas up in easy-to-read chapters without much support provided for their arguments. I was afraid that this would be the same.

Thankfully, this book was nowhere near that low standard (which, had I known more about the show more author, I should've known). Instead of dumbing down the material, it was divided up into short, encapsulated chapters that cover a surprisingly good range of arguments about each of the 23 "things". In no way could this book be compared to fast food -- more like a good steak, cut up into the small bite-sized pieces for me to chew through a little more easily. The arguments are thorough and thought-provoking yet each chapter is limited to about 10 to 12 pages. This is a great book to lug around when you expect to wait in line or ride on a bus or keep by your bedside for one-chapter-per-night reading. You can finish one chapter fairly quickly and yet get a lot out of just 10 pages.

It does, however, feel like a slideshow turned into a book (maybe that's par for the course with economist-authors, as I got the same feeling while reading Jeff Rubin's Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller -- although this book is better written than Rubin's). You can picture the 25 slides (intro slide, 23 "thing" slides, conclusion slide) that might have led to this book. Also, if you're looking for cohesion or even a steady progression while reading through the 23 "things" in sequence, you'll likely be disappointed. I didn't find this to be a problem but others might (as I see from other reviews below).

That said, I enjoyed it a lot -- much more than I expected. It was a pleasant surprise and I will definitely keep an eye out for other books by Ha-Joon Chang. show less

Un análisis histórico de casos que termina demostrando como las fórmulas neoliberales que los países desarrollados proponen (o imponen) a los países en vías de desarrollo son definitivamente una trampa que contradice por completo las vías y estrategias usadas por los primeros para llegar a donde están ahora.

El libro es mucho más que esta (para algunos) obviedad de perogrullo. Hace un recorrido por los distintos elementos que vinculan el desarrollo institucional, la ampliación de show more derechos laborales, la transición hacia los regímenes democráticos, la eliminación gradual del trabajo infantil y los distintos matices, contradicciones y datos incómodos que pueden surgir en el camino. show less