Chicago Boys

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The Chicago Boys (c. 1970s) were a group of about 25 Chilean economists working under the Augusto Pinochet administration to create a free market economy and decentralize economic and ultimately political power. The Chicago Boys received their basic economic education from the School of Economy in Universidad Católica. In 1956 that School had signed a three-year program of intensive collaboration with the Economics Faculty of the University of Chicago (the "Chile Project"). It entailed Chicago professors going to teach in Santiago, the donation of a full modern library, scholarships to the best Chilean students, etc. Under the leadersihip of Dean Theodore Shultz of the University of Chicago, this program was renewed three times and eventually totally transformed the teaching of economics in Chile. That is why the graduates of the School of Economics of "La Catolica" (the Catholic University) are called "the Chicago Boys". Only some of them went later for postgraduate studies at the University of Chicago, were they enrolled in Arnold Harberger's Latin American Finance Workshop and Milton Friedman's Money and Banking Workshop, but several others went to top level universities in the USA like Harvard University and Columbia University. The whole group was heavily influenced by the Chicago School of Economics, and especially by the writings and public policy proposals of Milton Friedman.

The ten key Chicago Boys were:

Jorge Cauas (Minister of Finance, 1975 - 1977)
Sergio de Castro (Minister of Finance, 1977 - 1982)
Pablo Baraona (Minister of Economy, 1976 - 1979)
José Piñera (Minister of Labor and Pensions, 1978-1980, Minister of Mining, 1980-1981)
Álvaro Bardón (Minister of Economy, 1982 - 1983)
Hernán Büchi (Minister of Finance 1985 - 1989)
Juan Carlos Méndez (Budget Director, 1975-1981)
Emilio Sanfuentes (Economic advisor to Central Bank)
Sergio de la Cuadra (Minister of Finance, 1982-1983)
Miguel Kast (Minister of Planning, 1978-1980)

1 Chicago Boys Elsewhere in Latin America
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Chicago Boys Elsewhere in Latin America

Although the largest and most influential group of so called Chicago Boys was Chilean in origin, there are many Latin American graduates from the University of Chicago around the same period. These economists continued to shape the economies of their respective countries, and include people like Mexico's Francisco Gil Diaz, Fernando Sanchez Ugarte, Carlos Isoard y Viesca, Argentina's Ricardo Lopez Murphy, and many more from countries like Brazil, Uruguay, and Costa Rica.

It has been stated by at least one former academic of the University that the main advantage Chile had when compared to other Latin American countries was not the presence of the Chicago Boys, but rather the large number of them and the coherence of their policy making.

[edit] References

Valdés, Juan Gabriel (1995), Pinochet's Economists: The Chicago School of Economics in Chile, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-45146-9