Pinochet's Economists: The Chicago School of Economics in Chile (Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics) - Hardcover

Valdes, Juan Gabriel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521451469 ISBN 13: 9780521451468

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1995

Synopsis

This book tells the extraordinary story of the Pinochet regime's economists, known as the Chicago Boys. It explores the roots of their ideas and their sense of mission, following their training as economists at the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. After their return to Chile, the Chicago Boys took advantage of the opportunity afforded them by the 1973 military coup to launch the first radical free market strategy implemented in a developing country. The ideological strength of their mission and the military authoritarianism of General Pinochet combined to transform an economy that, following the return to democracy, has stabilized and is seen as a model for Latin America. This book, written by a political scientist, examines the neo-liberal economists and their perspective on the market. It also narrates the history of the transfer of ideas from the industrialized world to a developing country, which will be of particular interest to economists.

About this title

Review:

"Valdés, who is deeply critical of the Chicago School for its lack of social content and its influence in Chilean public life, has written an important history of an elite group of economists and their allies among Chile's conservative business elite." American Historical Review

"Based on extensive research in the archives of the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations and the Agency of International Development, the book shows how the transmission of sconomic ideas was encouraged and fostered..." Foreign Affairs

"Pinochet's Economists gives a fascinating account of the conditions favoring ideological transfer, the specific events and actors involved in it, and the conditions that facilitated the initial flourishing and subsequent reproduction of neoliberalism in Chile." Latin American Research Review

"... a well-documented and well-argued book on the very interesting and important experience of the Chicago Boys, the international transfer of ideas, and the efforts of intellectuals to shape basic social and economic policies by using those ideas." The Annals of the American Academy

"...god examples of Americanists...whose work takes in more of the Amaericas." Brian Finnegan, American Studies International

Book Description:

This book tells the extraordinary story of the Pinochet regime's economists, known as the Chicago Boys. Following their training as economists at the University of Chicago, they took advantage of Pinochet's 1973 military coup to launch the first radical free market strategy implemented in a developing country.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0521451469
• ISBN 13: 9780521451468
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352