A collage illustration with a portrait of Albert Hirshman overlaid with cross sections of the globe and his name. Essay

The Development Economist Who Wasn’t

Once dismissed from the field he helped found, Albert O. Hirschman feels newly relevant. September 8, 2025, 12:07 AM Comment icon View Comments ( )

The history of development economics, since its inception, has been one of fads and intellectual bubbles. For decades, the U.S. government and international financial institutions have glommed on to a singular recipe for economic development, convinced that their latest, greatest idea would work. These have included the “Big Push” of massive public and private goods investments back in the 1960s and the neoliberal Washington Consensus that dominated post-Cold War thinking.

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