Empirical socio-economic research never gained a foothold in the neoliberal thought collective.

Evidence

As noted earlier, as president of the Mont Pèlerin Society, Schmölders suggested the “entrepreneur in modern economy and society” as the theme for the conference he organized in Munich in 1970. Vigorously raising financial support from German companies for the ambitious conference program, Schmölders saw the meeting of the “neoliberal thought collective” as an opportunity to present his research agenda in empirical socioeconomics to an international audience. It was not sufficient to analyze the real function of the entrepreneur within the economy, Schmölders explained in his opening address, but also public opinion, which influenced economic decision-making processes and economic policy. Starting with the findings of Schmölders’s institute, presenters on the first day thus reported on the “image of the entrepreneur” in Germany, the United States, France, Great Britain, Japan, India, South Africa and in “Underdeveloped (Poor) Countries,” before others concentrated particularly on the entrepreneur’s image among certain groups. Schmölders’s success in convincing his fellow neoliberals to follow his research agenda, however, was rather limited. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 338

Categorization

• XREF: Fits the book’s larger theme of internal fragmentation in neoliberalism — a heterodox empirical wing within the MPS that mainstream figures declined to adopt. — connects to: Neoliberalism served interests, never grounded in economic theory; Neoliberals rejected the sociology of knowledge as hostile to scientific objectivity — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 87; Neoliberalism is a self-consciously evolving thought collective, not a fixed catechism — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 141 (+3 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Shows the MPS as a space of contested research programs where an empirical, survey-based behavioral agenda lost to a more abstract doctrinal approach — complicates the image of a unified ‘Chicago school’.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals rejected the sociology of knowledge as hostile to scientific objectivity #complicates (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 87
• Neoliberalism is a self-consciously evolving thought collective, not a fixed catechism #complicates (0.72) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 141
• Contingency scholars reject theoretical coherence in explaining neoliberal policy #corroborates (0.72)
• Neoliberalism’s cohesion comes from thought-collective structure, not explicit doctrine #qualifies (0.70) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 916
• Neoliberal thinkers rejected natural-science methods in social knowledge because inner consciousness is inaccessible #complicates (0.70) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 83