Embedding GroupThink: Assessing the Spread of Neoliberal Ideas and Influence

Abstract:

The rise of neoliberal ideas and influence in academic and policy institutions is often suspected but rarely demonstrated. The rise and spread of ideas such as Rational Expectations and Real Business Cycle have greatly influenced economic policy-making and thinking, yet we have no systematic overview on how these ideas emerged, and who supported them through academic and policy circles in the UK and the US. The GroupThink project will provide a diverse mixed method approach to analyzing the spread of neoliberal ideas and influence in Anglo-American academia and policy-making. We will combine analyses of citation networks, affiliation networks, and career sequences to establish the precise mechanisms for how neoliberal ideas spread. The overall aim for the Groupthink project is to establish:- The prominence of neoliberal ideas in top journal publications and notable policy reports.- The identification of economists and key policymakers who identify with neoliberal ideas.- The relationship between the publication and professing of neoliberal ideas and career trajectories.- How these people are networked within domestic and international academic and policy institutions.