Chicago’s 1956 Chile program trained thirty economists and reshaped nationwide economics teaching

Evidence

A second attempt, launched in 1955, succeeded in overcoming these obstacles and led to Project Chile. Patterson, Chaná, and Ugarte eventually signed a treaty of cooperation, and members of the Chicago department (T.W. Schultz, Earl J. Hamilton, Simon Rottenberg, and Arnold Harberger) traveled to Santiago to work out the concrete terms of a future training program. Despite continuing opposition from some university council members, an agreement with the Economics Department of the University of Chicago was finally signed in March 1956. As a result, approximately thirty Chilean economists were trained in Chicago between 1956 and 1964. The exchange program also attracted graduates from the University of Chile and succeeded in substantially altering the way economics was taught in the whole Chilean University system. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1550

Categorization

• XREF: Direct precursor to the better-known ‘Chicago Boys’ of the Pinochet era; connects to standard neoliberal historiography. — connects to: Chicago economists trained under a US aid program shaped Pinochet’s reforms — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 516; Chicago recruited Chile’s Catholic University as a laboratory to test its economics — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1548; Over 150 Chilean economists were trained in Chicago across three decades. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1551
• SEED: Could support an essay on how a small training program scales into nationwide doctrinal transformation.

Broader Connections

• Over 150 Chilean economists were trained in Chicago across three decades. #qualifies (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1551