Publishing controversial libertarian views could damage an economist’s academic career prospects

Evidence

Unfortunately, we do not know the exact source of Director’s hesitation; one plausible explanation might be that Director feared this project might taint his career in the same way that the Road to Serfdom had tainted Hayek’s, making future academic employment difficult in an American academic milieu. Indeed, this was the interpretation of John Nef (1973, 237). Another plausible explanation might be that Director felt some misgivings about returning to the University of Chicago because in 1934 an animus in the Economics Department toward his outspoken libertarian views may have played some role in prompting him to leave. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 846

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the pattern of how heterodox or politically-charged scholars were marginalized in mid-century US economics departments.