Albert O. Hirschman

Albert O. Hirschman
1915–2012
Professor Emeritus
School of Social Science

Albert Hirschman is a development economist renowned for his lucid and innovative contributions to economics, the history of ideas, and the social sciences. He was a major participant in the discussion of the emergence of authoritarian regimes in Latin America in the sixties and the seventies, and the return to democratic forms of governance in the eighties. His view of development acknowledges the complexity of human behavior and social reality. His books include Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States (1970); The Passions and the Interests (1977), which traces the history of social thought from Machiavelli to Tocqueville; and The Rhetoric of Reaction (1991).

Università degli Studi di Trieste, Ph.D. 1938; University of California, Berkeley, Research Fellow 1941–43; Federal Reserve Board, Economist 1946–52; Bogotá, Colombia, Economic Adviser and Consultant 1952–56; Yale University, Visiting Research Professor 1956–58; Columbia University, Professor 1958–64; Harvard University, Professor 1964–67, Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy 1967–74; Institute for Advanced Study, Member 1972–73, Professor 1974–85, Professor Emeritus 1985–2012; American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Member; American Philosophical Society, Member; National Academy of Sciences, Member; Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Foreign Member; British Academy, Corresponding Fellow; American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Talcott Parsons Prize for Social Science 1983; Latin American Studies Association, Kalman Silvert Prize 1986; Orden de San Carlos 1995; Toynbee Prize 1997; American Philosophical Society, Thomas Jefferson Medal 1998; National Order of the Southern Cross 2000; American Political Science Association, Benjamin E. Lippincott Award 2003; Order of Bernardo O’Higgins 2005

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