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Albert O. Hirschman

Albert O. Hirschman’s Followers (122)

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Albert O. Hirschman


Born
in Berlin, Germany
April 07, 1915

Died
December 10, 2012

Genre


Albert Otto Hirschman was an economist and the author of several books on political economy and political ideology. His first major contribution was in the area of development economics. Here he emphasized the need for unbalanced growth. He argued that disequilibria should be encouraged to stimulate growth and help mobilize resources, because developing countries are short of decision making skills. Key to this was encouraging industries with many linkages to other firms.

His later work was in political economy and there he advanced two schemata. The first describes the three basic possible responses to decline in firms or polities (quitting, speaking up, staying quiet) in Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (1970). The second describes the basic argum
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Average rating: 4.08 · 2,513 ratings · 276 reviews · 72 distinct worksSimilar authors
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: R...

4.12 avg rating — 1,008 ratings — published 1970 — 20 editions
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The Passions and the Intere...

4.13 avg rating — 730 ratings — published 1977 — 36 editions
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The Rhetoric of Reaction: P...

4.04 avg rating — 464 ratings — published 1991 — 24 editions
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Shifting Involvements: Priv...

3.97 avg rating — 61 ratings — published 1981 — 17 editions
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The Essential Hirschman

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3.90 avg rating — 48 ratings — published 2013 — 9 editions
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Development Projects Observed

3.50 avg rating — 28 ratings — published 1967 — 18 editions
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The Strategy Of Economic De...

4.09 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 1958 — 13 editions
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Crossing Boundaries: Select...

3.53 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 1998 — 8 editions
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National Power and the Stru...

4.06 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 1969 — 6 editions
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Rival Views of Market Socie...

3.86 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 1992 — 6 editions
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More books by Albert O. Hirschman…
Quotes by Albert O. Hirschman  (?)
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“Creativity always comes a surprise to us; therefore we can never count on it and we dare not believe in it until it has happened. In other words, we would not consciously engage upon tasks whose success clearly requires that creativity be forthcoming. Hence, the only way in which we can bring our creative resources fully into play is by misjudging the nature of the task, by presenting it to ourselves as more routine, simple, undemanding of genuine creativity that it will turn out to be”
Albert O. Hirschman

“History is nothing if not far-fetched.”
Albert O. Hirschman

“Creativity always comes as a surprise to us; therefore we can never count on it and we dare not believe in it until it has happened. In other words, we would not consciously engage upon tasks whose success clearly requires that creativity be forthcoming. Hence, the only way in which we can bring our creative resources fully into play is by misjudging the nature of the task, by presenting it to ourselves as more routine, simple, undemanding of genuine creativity than it will turn out to be. Or, put differently: since we necessarily underestimate our creativity, it is desirable that we underestimate to a roughly similar extent the difficulties of the tasks we face so as to be tricked by these two offsetting underestimates into undertaking tasks that we can, but otherwise would not dare, tackle. The principle is important enough to deserve a name: since we are apparently on the trail here of some sort of invisible or hidden hand that beneficially hides difficulties from us, I propose the Hiding Hand.”
Albert O. Hirschman, Development Projects Observed