Albert O. Hirschman

Quotes

• “At this point, then, a junction is effected between the previously developed train of thought on countervailing passions and the doctrine of interest. Both doctrines originated in Machiavelli; yet the final outcome—the promotion of avarice to the position of the privileged passion given the job of taming the wild ones and of making in this fashion a crucial contribution to statecraft—would have greatly surprised and outraged him.”
• “The welfare state may thus face a wave of hostile public opinion and as a result may well pass through a difficult phase, with the need for consolidation and even retrenchment. However, if the reasons suggested here for the change in the climate of opinion are correct, the trouble could be temporary.”
• “A taste is almost defined as a preference about which you do not argue — de gustibus non est disputandum. A taste about which you argue, with others or yourself, ceases ipso facto being a taste – it turns into a value.”
• “Exit and voice, that is, market and non­ market forces, that is, economic and political mechanisms, have been introduced as two principal actors of strictly equal rank and importance.”

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Key facts

Born

( 1915-04-07 ) April 7, 1915, Berlin , German Empire

Died

December 10, 2012 (2012-12-10) (aged 97), Ewing Township, New Jersey , United States

Alma mater

University of Berlin (transferred, 1933) HEC Paris ( diploma , 1935) London School of Economics (fellowship, 1935–1936) University of Trieste ( laurea , 1938) University of California, Berkeley (fellowship, 1941–1942)

Discipline

Political economy

Institutions

Federal Reserve Board (1946–1951) World Bank (1952–1954) Yale University (1956–1958) Columbia University (1958–1964) Harvard University (1964–1974) Institute for Advanced Study (1974–2012)

Notable ideas

Strategy of unbalanced growth Hiding hand principle Exit, voice, and loyalty model Hirschman cycle

Website

Information at IDEAS / RePEc

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image

Albert O. Hirschman, 1945 (cropped).jpg

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