University commercialization since the 1980s entrenched economics by placing economists atop major universities.

Evidence

It was not just the turbocharged finance sector that provided cover for economists. Another major factor in the maintenance of the untouchable reputation of the orthodox economics profession has been the progressive commercialization of the totality of university research since the 1980s. This is a very large topic, and I have dealt with it in detail elsewhere. The central observation for our present purposes is to realize that, if one wholeheartedly subscribes to the neoliberal doctrine of the market as über–information processor, then “reform” of the university prescribes the monetization of knowledge in all its forms. Since the 1980s, the most prominent academic prophets of this reform have been members of the economics profession. Indeed, so zealous were the boards of trustees and state governments to bring about this change that neoclassical economists were frequently installed as presidents of many major universities: Summers at Harvard, Hugo Sonnenschein at Chicago, Harold Shapiro at Princeton, Richard Levin at Yale, and more at lesser schools. Summers, in particular, was brought on board at Harvard to induce what was perceived as a relatively recalcitrant bunch of pampered faculty to become more responsive to market signals. These captains of erudition then set out to shrink the footprint of the humanities and expand the natural sciences at their institutions, since that was where the money was purportedly to be found. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 585

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Slaughter & Rhoades ‘Academic Capitalism’ literature on the commercialization of universities; also relates to the idea of economists as a self-perpetuating thought collective. — connects to: A single financier can dominate economics via interlocked corporate boards and faculty placement. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 565; Economists drove and profited from the commercialization of universities — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 587; University restructuring locked in economists’ institutional shelter from accountability — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 589
• SEED: The university presidency as an economist-seeding mechanism is an under-covered angle: how boards installed neoclassical economists specifically to enforce market responsiveness, expanding economics’ footprint within the academy.

Broader Connections

• Economists drove and profited from the commercialization of universities #expands (0.95) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 587
• University restructuring locked in economists’ institutional shelter from accountability #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 589