The ersatz Nobel actively intervened to install English-inflected American orthodoxy as the global standard.

Evidence

The purpose of the ersatz Nobel was to elevate certain strains of economic thought above their competitors; those strains were an Americanized version of Walrasianism and an MPS-inspired neoliberalism. If the two strains found a stilted hybrid at the University of Chicago, then all the better for Chicago and its global reputation. The Swedes were forward-looking, realizing they were intervening to bring about an outcome that had not yet become a global standard: English-inflected American orthodoxy, tricked out to resemble the natural sciences, with a dollop of neoliberal political theory. The American prizes, by contrast, had been sadly backward-looking; therefore, it was the better part of valor to simply retire the Walker medal with little fanfare. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 535

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that the Swedish prize was an ‘intervention’ toward an outcome not yet standard is striking — worth chasing how deliberate versus emergent this was.
• SEED: A piece on how prize institutions (not just ideas) manufactured the global dominance of a school of thought — Nobel economics as world-building infrastructure.
• XREF: connects to: The economics Nobel is a feigned imitation of the genuine award. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 470; The 1974 Nobel pairing hid a neoliberal project to legitimize the Mont Pèlerin Society — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 525; The Nobel prize shaped American economics despite official denials — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 526 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• The economics Nobel is a feigned imitation of the genuine award. #corroborates (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 470
• The 1974 Nobel pairing hid a neoliberal project to legitimize the Mont Pèlerin Society #corroborates (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 525
• The Nobel prize shaped American economics despite official denials #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 526
• 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 economics prize was created to win public deference for central bank independence #expands (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 476