Neoliberal antitrust claims preceded the empirical work meant to support them

Evidence

Two empirical investigations funded in part by the FMS were Nutter (1951) and Weston (1953). Interestingly, the empirical research was published after the neoliberal claims started to emerge. Moreover, the extent to which the empirical research supports the neoliberals’ claims is questionable; see Van Horn (2007). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1175

Categorization

• QUESTION: What does Van Horn (2007) argue about the fit between the data and the claims? A thread worth chasing into the scholarship.
• XREF: connects to: The Institute kept theory loosely coupled to empirical results to protect its totality claims — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 722; Neoliberal corporate theory was deployed to defend Too Big to Bail banks — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 176; Eighties IP rhetoric reframed intellectual property as exclusion over competition — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 198 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal theories succeed as policy rhetoric despite having scant evidence #corroborates (0.80) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 425