Chang's contribution to economics started while studying under Robert Rowthorn, a leading British Marxist economist,[11] with whom he worked on the elaboration of the theory of industrial policy, which he described as a middle way between central planning and an unrestrained free market.

This and other work led to his being awarded the 2005 Wassily Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought from the Global Development and Environment Institute (previous prize-winners include Amartya Sen, John Kenneth Galbraith, Herman Daly, Alice Amsden and Robert Wade).

He did not examine countries that failed to develop in the nineteenth century and see if they pursued the same heterodox policies only more intensively.

[16]Chang countered Irwin's criticisms by arguing that countries that had failed to develop had generally followed free market policies.

[17] Chang's book won plaudits from Nobel Prize–winning economist Joseph Stiglitz for its fresh insight and effective blend of contemporary and historical cases but was criticised by former World Bank economist William Easterly, who said that Chang used selective evidence in his book.

[20] Following up on the ideas of Kicking Away the Ladder, Chang published Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism in December 2008.

This marks a broadening of Chang's focus from his previous books that were mainly critiques of neo-liberal capitalism as it related to developing countries.