Ha-Joon Chang (born in South Korea in 1963) is one of the leading heterodox economists and institutional economists specialising in development economics. He came to the UK as a graduate student at the Faculty of Economics and Politics, University of Cambridge in 1986 and earned his PhD in 1992. He has been teaching economics at the Faculty of Economics (as it is called now) and the Development Studies programme at the University of Cambridge since 1990. Currently a Reader in the Political Economy of Development at the University of Cambridge, Chang is the author of several influential policy books, including 2002's Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective.
He has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Investment Bank as well as to Oxfam and various United Nations agencies. He is also a fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
Chang is also known for being an important academic influence on the economist Rafael Correa, currently President of Ecuador.
Chang lives with his Korean wife and two children (and no dogs!) at Cambridge, UK, but retains his South Korean citizenship.