Since its birth in 1944, the World Bank has had a strong focus on development projects. Yet, it did not have a project evaluation unit until the early 1970s. An early attempt to conceptualize project appraisal had been made in the 1960s by Albert Hirschman, whose undertaking raised high...

Development economics in its early years created the image of a fierce fight between advocates of contrasting theories or approaches- "balanced growth" vs. "unbalanced growth" or "program loans" vs. "project loans." This view has the merit to highlight such conflicts in great detail; yet it...

Albert O. Hirschman (1915-2012), is recognized as one of the most well-rounded and interdisciplinary social scientists of the postwar era. After fleeing Germany as a young opponent to the Nazi regime, he moved across countries, languages, and disciplinary boundaries. He was a pioneer of...

After World War II, a new disciplinary field called “development economics” emerged, as economists began to shape specific theories in order to address the practical problems they were facing in less developed countries. Theory arose out of practice, in the sense that the shaping of...