The power of economists within the state

Abstract

Market-oriented reforms have been one of the major political and economic trends of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Yet some countries have embraced them more than others. To help explain this variation, Johan Christensen examines one key influencer: the entrenchment of U.S.-trained, neoclassical economists in state bureaucracies. Christensen uses comparative case studies of New Zealand, Ireland, Norway, and Denmark to show how economists affected each nation's tax policies. He finds that, in countries where economic experts held strategic positions, neoclassical economics broke through with greater force. Drawing on interviews with policy elites, he examines the specific ways in which economists shaped reforms by learning on an activist approach to policymaking and the perceived utility of their science to drive change.