Study abroad
Moves to Cambridge, England
He says he went to Cambridge in July 1986.
Source 03 · Chosun Biz (Korean) · Kim Ji-su’s Interstellar · opens in a new tab The month follows his own statement.The year he turned 23, he went to Cambridge, England. In 1990, according to Kyunghyang Shinmun, he became the first Korean to stand at a lectern at Cambridge. In 2002, he published Kicking Away the Ladder in the UK.
The breakthrough yearThe year he turned 40, he became the first Korean to receive the Gunnar Myrdal Prize, given to an economist who offers an alternative to neoclassical economics. Maeil Business Newspaper writes that he gained a reputation through this award.
In 2004, the Korean edition of Kicking Away the Ladder came out. In 2005, he received the Wassily Leontief Prize as its youngest recipient. In 2006, he published Gukgaui Yeokhal (The Role of the State) and was profiled in the Kyunghyang Shinmun series 60 People to Lead Korea.
In 2007, he published Bad Samaritans, and Yonhap News Agency introduced him at that point as a scholar who was gaining fame. 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism, which he published in 2010, had 200,000 copies shipped 40 days after sales began.
The year he turned 51, he ranked ninth among Prospect’s thinkers of the year and published Economics: The User’s Guide. In 2018, Bad Samaritans was reissued after 11 years.
In 2020, a revised edition of Kicking Away the Ladder came out. In 2021, he was named to the AIIB International Advisory Panel. In 2022, he left his professorship at Cambridge and moved to SOAS University of London.
In 2023, he published Edible Economics, his first new book in 10 years, and appeared on MBC Iltagangsa. In 2024, the SOAS Centre for Sustainable Structural Transformation (CSST) held its opening ceremony. In 2026, he attended the CSST Africa research results briefing as co-director.
Ha-Joon Chang (born 1963) began teaching at the University of Cambridge in 1990, the year he turned 27, the first Korean to do so according to Kyunghyang Shinmun, and became known on Nov 8, 2003, the year he turned 40, when he became the first Korean to receive the Gunnar Myrdal Prize. In 2005, the year he turned 42, he received the Wassily Leontief Prize as its youngest recipient.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.