- 200 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Development Projects Observed
About this book
Originally published in 1967, the modest and plainly descriptive title of Development Projects Observed is deceptive. Today, it is recognized as the ultimate volume of Hirschman's groundbreaking trilogy on development, and as the bridge to the broader social science themes of his subsequent writings. Though among his lesser-known works, this unassuming tome is one of his most influential.
It is in this book that Hirschman first shared his now famous ""Principle of the Hiding Hand."" In an April 2013 New Yorker issue, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an appreciation of the principle, described by Cass Sunstein in the book's new foreword as ""a bit of a trick up history's sleeve."" It can be summed up as a phenomenon in which people's inability to foresee obstacles leads to actions that succeed because people have far more problem-solving ability that they anticipate or appreciate.
And it is in Development Projects Observed that Hirschman laid the foundation for the core of his most important work, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, and later led to the concept of an ""exit strategy.""
It is in this book that Hirschman first shared his now famous ""Principle of the Hiding Hand."" In an April 2013 New Yorker issue, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an appreciation of the principle, described by Cass Sunstein in the book's new foreword as ""a bit of a trick up history's sleeve."" It can be summed up as a phenomenon in which people's inability to foresee obstacles leads to actions that succeed because people have far more problem-solving ability that they anticipate or appreciate.
And it is in Development Projects Observed that Hirschman laid the foundation for the core of his most important work, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, and later led to the concept of an ""exit strategy.""
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Yes, you can access Development Projects Observed by Albert O. Hirschman in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Business & Business General. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
INDEX
Adelman, Jeremy, 183
Administration (management): dualism in, 146–47; improvement of, 159; properties of, 4; quality of, 99; uncertainties in, 34, 42–52, 70, 73, 78. See also Autonomous agencies; Bureaucracy
Africa: colonization projects in, 17, 17n8; economic development in, 121n2, 170; educational spending in, 116; railway projects in, 63. See also specific countries
Agricultural projects: economic growth of, 168, 169; Hiding Hand principle in, 16, 16n7; inadequate demand in, 69; locational latitude of, 81; mitigation of uncertainties in, 75; principal defenses in, 50; reform of, 143, 160; technological uncertainty in, 39–40; temporal discipline in, 17, 88. See also Pasture improvement
Air transport projects: innovation in, 143; principal defenses in, 49; private vs. public outlays for, 111; repeatability of, 38; social effects of, 45; trait-making in, 137
Alacevich, Michele, 175–90
Alternatives, availability of, 92
Assistance, international, 144–45
Australia, role in Uruguay pasture improvement, 36
Autonomous agencies, 48, 85–86, 108, 141–47
Backward linkage, 66n22, 148, 153, 164–65, 167, 169, 176
Balanced-growth approach, 22, 68, 72, 77, 176–77
Balance-of-payments pressures, 159
Bamboo supply, 8–9, 34n1, 36, 74–75
Banana crops, 60, 90, 92, 107
Baran, Paul, 145n14
Bargaining power, 86n5
Behavioral science vs. economic thinking, xi
Bell, Daniel, 185
Beltrán, Pedro, 94
Benefit-cost analysis, 7, 25, 161–67, 187
Benefits: criteria for, 172–73; exaggeration of, 16n7, 27–31; indirect, 24, 148–50, 157n9, 162–66, 168, 171; of problem solution, 33–34; underestimation of, 15. See also Side-effects
Bhakra Nangal project (India), 10
Bias: optimistic, viii, x–xi; in project selection, 16; in site-bound investments, 81–82
Birth (population) control, 152, 157, 159, 168
Brazil: drought in, 178; electric power projects in, 155n7; fiscal uncertainty of agencies in, 54; highway projects in, 83; locational latitude of projects in, 83–84; political interference in, 94, 144; river valley development in, 19
Brookings Institution, on development policies, 179–80, 185
Building ahead of demand strategy, 62, 63–64
Bureaucracy: counteroffensives by, 47; parasitic behavior by, 48–52, 54, 154–55; threats to, 44. See also Administration (management)
Bureau of Reclamation, U.S., 162, 165
...Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Foreword: Albert Hirschmans Hiding Hand
- Authors Preface: A Hidden Ambition
- Authors Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- One - The Principle of the Hiding Hand
- Two - Uncertainties
- Three - Latitudes and Disciplines
- Four - Project Design: Trait-Taking and Trait-Making
- Five - Project Appraisal: The Centrality of Side-Effects
- Afterword: Albert Hirschman Observed
- Index
- About the Author
- Back Cover