Chicago Boys

The Chicago Boys (c. 1970s) were a group of young male, mostly Chilean economists, the majority of whom trained at the Department of Economics of the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger, or at its affiliate in the economics department at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Upon their return to Latin America they adopted positions in the Junta governments as economic advisors, many of them reaching high positions [1].

History

The term Chicago Boys has been used at least as early as the 1980s[2] to describe Latin American economists who studied or identified with the neoliberal economic theories then taught at the University of Chicago, even though some of them earned degrees at Harvard or MIT (see below). "Chicago boys generally advocated widespread deregulation, privatization, and other free market policies for closely controlled economies. They rose to fame as leaders of the early reforms initiated in Chile during the rule of General Augusto Pinochet."[2] Milton and Rose Friedman used the term Chicago Boys in their memoir: "In 1975, when inflation still raged and a world recession triggered a depression in Chile, General Pinochet turned to the "Chicago Boys" ... and appointed several of them to powerful positions in the government.[3]

The training program was the result of a "Chile Project" organized in the 1950s by the U.S. State Department, through the Point Four program, the first US program for international economic development. It was funded by the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation aimed at influencing Chilean economic thinking. The University of Chicago’s Department of Economics set up scholarship programs with Chile’s Catholic University. About one hundred select students between 1957 and 1970 received training, first in an apprenticeship program in Chile and then in post-graduate work in Chicago.

The project was uneventful until the early 1970s. The Chicago Boys' ideas remained on the fringes of Chilean economic and political thought, even after a group of them prepared a 189-page “Program for Economic Development” called El ladrillo ("the brick").[4] It was presented 1969 as part of Jorge Alessandri's (unsuccessful) presidential candidacy. Alessandri rejected El ladrillo, but it was revisited after the 1973 Chilean coup d'état on 11 September 1973 brought Augusto Pinochet to power, and it became the basis of the new regime's economic policy.

Even though the "Chile Project" ended, the training connection between Chile and the University of Chicago continues. One of the numerous networking organizations for alumni, including the Chicago Boys, is the "Latin American Business Group at Chicago Booth School of Business" (LATAM).

The term continues to be used in popular culture, business magazines (see external links).

Key Chicago Boys

Chile

Some of the more than 100 Chilean "Chicago Boys" are or were:

Elsewhere in Latin America

Although the largest and most influential group of so-called Chicago Boys was Chilean in origin, there were 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 Díaz, Fernando Sanchez Ugarte, Carlos Isoard y Viesca, Argentina's Domingo Cavallo, Adolfo Diz, Roque Fernández, Carlos Alfredo Rodríguez, Fernando de Santibañez and Ricardo Lopez Murphy, as well as others in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Panama.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Naomi Klein, 2007, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Gary S. Becker (1997-10-30). "What Latin America Owes to the "Chicago Boys"". Hoover Digest. Stanford University. Retrieved 2012-11-14.
  3. ↑ Two Lucky People: Memoirs. Milton Friedman and Rose D. Friedman. University of Chicago Press, 1998. p. 398.
  4. ↑ El Ladrillo. Bases de la política económica del gobierno militar chileno.Santiago: CEP 2nd edition1992
  5. ↑ "Latin American Business Group at Chicago Booth School of Business (Latam Group)Speaker Profile". Retrieved 2014-01-26.
  6. ↑ "Latin American Business Group at Chicago Booth School of Business (Latam Group)Speaker Profile". Retrieved 2014-01-26.
  7. ↑ "Latin American Business Group at Chicago Booth School of Business (Latam Group) Speaker Profile". Retrieved 2014-01-26.
  8. ↑ "Latin American Business Group at Chicago Booth School of Business (Latam Group)Speaker Profile". Retrieved 2014-01-26.

Further reading

External links