The economics Nobel was created by welfare-state opponents to boost neoliberal economics

Evidence

One of the signs of the authority of the discipline is the awarding of a Nobel Prize in Economics—an honor shared by no other social science. In his chapter on the “Ersatz Nobel Prize,” Philip Mirowski emphasizes the relevance of cultural institutions for the rise and staying power of neoliberalism by recounting the genesis of the “Memorial Prize in Honor of Alfred Nobel” a half-century after the other prizes. He recounts a powerful confluence of contingency and purposeful strategy in the creation of the prize by a group of officials and economists of the Swedish Riksbank united in opposition to the Swedish welfare state in the 1960s. Mirowski details the Swedish push for modern American neoclassical economics and the right wing of neoliberal economics through the strategic selection of committee members and candidates. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 42

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘Ersatz Nobel’ angle — a deliberately engineered cultural institution underwriting one school of thought — is a strong piece for the austerity/neoliberalism map building.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing the empirical detail of which and how many committee seats were strategically packed.
• XREF: connects to: Neoliberals themselves devised ideological scorekeeping of Nobel economics winners — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 510; Nobel economics prizes to neoliberals resulted from contingency plus deliberate agenda — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 499; Neoliberals held about 38-40 percent of economics Nobel prizes since 1993 — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 494 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• The economics prize consciously moved the profession in a neoliberal direction #corroborates (0.88) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 484
• Neoliberals themselves devised ideological scorekeeping of Nobel economics winners #corroborates (0.82) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 510
• The economics Nobel transformed economic capital into symbolic capital inflating the discipline’s public power #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 459
• The Nobel prize shaped American economics despite official denials #corroborates (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 526
• Nobel economics prizes to neoliberals resulted from contingency plus deliberate agenda #corroborates (0.78) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 499
• Neoliberals held about 38-40 percent of economics Nobel prizes since 1993 #corroborates (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 494
• The Nobel economics prize was created to win public deference for central bank independence #responds-to (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 476
• Adenauer-era economics aimed to dismantle the welfare state rather than build it #exemplifies (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2516