Items related to Development Projects Observed
Synopsis
First published in 1967, Development Projects Observed has been a benchmark in practical thinking about economic development. Now, this classic volume is reissued with a thoughtful new preface by the author. Albert O. Hirschman, one of the great pioneers in the field, offers a first-hand study of eleven major development projects financed by the World Bank and explores the factors that account for the success and failure of some of these efforts. Hirschman looks at the ways decisionmaking is molded, activated, or hampered by the specific nature of the project that is undertaken - a pulp and paper mill in East Pakistan, telecommunications in Ethiopia, an irrigation project in Peru, railway expansion in Nigeria, and other development undertakings. Besides the traditional cost-benefit calculations, he points to a number of historical, technological, and social categories, such as "temporal discipline in construction" and "latitude for corruption," that can have major influence on the course of a project. With the passage of time, Hirschman's wide-ranging and shrewd analysis has achieved ever greater recognition. The book also marked the publication of one of his most provocative ideas: the "principle of the hiding hand," which states that underestimating the costs or difficulties of a project can actually be a helpful stimulus as it allows people to bring their energies and creative resources more fully into play than might otherwise have been the case.
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About the Author
Albert O. Hirschman (1915-2012) was an influential economist who is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary intellectuals. His other books include Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States (Harvard University Press, 1970) and The Strategy of Economic Development (Yale University Press, 1958).
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