"Between 1946 and 1952, Albert O. Hirschman, a German-born economist and wartime refugee, worked as an economic analyst in the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Board of the United States. He was first in charge of the Western European desk; later he was the Fed's representative to the...

The paper analyzes Albert Hirschman's theory of linkages in economic development in his writings, and the possible influence of his Colombia experience in the development of this idea. The theory is then applied to explain Colombia’s economic history in the nineteenth and twentieth century....