An economists’ report conferred legitimacy that recruited the key lawyer for options trading

Evidence

The Nathan Report, in turn, made it possible for the proposal for an options exchange to gain its single most crucial recruit, Milton Cohen. The Chicago lawyer had originally not wished to be associated with the proposal, but the report made it “legitimate enough” that he agreed to become Special Counsel to the Board of Trade and to lead its negotiations with the SEC (Sullivan interview). Cohen had been a senior official at the SEC and was arguably the preeminent securities lawyer in the United States. No one was better placed to “make a record” with the SEC: putting proposals and getting responses. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 666

Categorization

• XREF: Classic performativity case where an economics report (Nathan Associates) had causal force on institutional reality — connects to the chapter’s thesis that models ‘make’ markets.