Kicking Awaythe Ladder

How did the rich countries really become rich?  In this provocative study, Ha-Joon Chang examines the great pressure on developing countries from the developed world to adopt certain 'good policies' and 'good institutions', seen today as necessary for economic development. His conclusions are compelling and disturbing: that developed countries are attempting to 'kick away the ladder' with which they have climbed to the top, thereby preventing developing countries from adopting policies and institutions that they themselves have used.

Exposes the attempts by developed countries to ‘kick away the ladder’ from developing countries trying to join the economic elite.

John Toye

In this lively, knowledgeable and original contribution to international political economy, Ha-Joon Chang puts economic history at the centre of the current trade liberalization debate, arguing that developing countries should not be denied policy instruments used by Europe and America for their own development. He deserves our thanks for making this argument with rare force and skill.

Dr Ha-Joon Chang teaches at the Faculty of Economics and Politics, University of Cambridge. Dr Chang has also edited a number of volumes with Anthem Press, including Joseph Stiglitz and the World Bank: the Rebel Within (2001), Rethinking Development Economics (2003), and Institutional Change and Economic Development (2007). He is the winner, together with Richard Nelson of Columbia University, of the 2005 Leontief Prize.