Who are the leading economists in each presidential command

Few remain of the Chicago followers and Keynesians of the 1980s. In each economic team of candidates there are different intellectual referents and new schools of economic thought, although homogeneity is not the norm, because even within the same groups there is diversity. And also authors or references in common between the members of the teams of José Antonio Kast and Gabriel Boric.

For example, Patrick Rojas, Kast’s economic adviser and a former member of Sichel’s command, says he doesn’t marry a single name or school of economic thought. Yes, he reports that his doctoral thesis at MIT was supervised by the Nobel laureate, Rudiger Dornbusch and reviewed by Stanley Fischer, two important references in the economic world. The two wrote the book Macroeconomics, a matter bible still.

Another that Rojas follows is Philippe Aghion, one of the most widely read authors with his book The Power of Creative Destruction, and where he talks about the transforming power of innovation in countries.

“However, you don’t have to go far to look for references. For me Vittorio Corbo He is one of the most brilliant economists in the world, ”he says.

The economic head of the Republican Party candidate, Eduardo Guerrero, responds that “the team has heterogeneous roots, and therein lies its value. There are no ‘enlightened economists’ leading the way in JAK’s command. Some have a more Keynesian root, others a more classical tradition, and others a more conservative tradition ”.

Jose Luis Daza, PhD in Economics from Georgetown University, who has taken a leading role in the campaign these weeks, has mentioned in interviews that he does not believe in the concept of the entrepreneurial state and defines himself as a strong defender of the free market.

Another member of the team, Sylvia Eyzaguirre, states that in economics it follows James Heckman, Amartya Sen and Esther Duflo. In particular, James Heckman, a Chicago professor, was a Nobel laureate in 2000 and his academic work has focused on the importance of investing in education from an early age.

While the French economist Esther Duflo, won the Nobel Prize for her “experimental approach to alleviate global poverty.” Chile is not unknown to the MIT economist, thanks to the work of J-PAL, a laboratory whose Latin American headquarters is at UC and which seeks evidence on the best policies against poverty.

Ha Joon Chan, Mazzucato and Barr

On the side of Gabriel Boric’s command, in a recent interview with this medium, the economic advisor, Nicolás Grau, assured that within the Frente Amplio there were two clear references: Ha Joon Chan and Mariana Mazzucato.

“We are obsessed with the tools that we are going to use, instead of what we want to build,” said in La Tercera last week the Korean-born economist, current Cambridge academic and staunch defender of social democracy, with whom Grau studied his doctorate. in Pennsylvania.

Mazzucato, for her part, is an academic at University College London and the author of books such as “The Entrepreneurial State” and “Mission Economy: A space race to change capitalism.” The expert has stated in various interviews that the Chilean State should lead the transformation of industries such as copper and salmon. It is also necessary to rethink new ways of generating wealth, changing paradigms.

Another member of Boric’s command is Guillermo Larraín, the former superintendent of Pensions, who in the first round supported the candidacy of Yasna Provoste. He, he says, has three reference authors: Philippe Aghion, from the College de France, as well as Patricio Rojas from the Kast team.

Too François Bourguignon, from the Paris School of Economics, who is an expert on income distribution, economic growth and equity, a topic that he included in the global debate when he was chief economist at the World Bank.

Nicholas Barr, from the London School of Economics, one of the world’s largest benchmarks in pensions, and was even part of the 2014 Chilean advisory commission in Chile. Then, he voted to maintain the current pension system, but applying strong reforms in its operation. He was in favor of increasing the contribution rate and delaying the retirement age.

They close the list of Larraín, Paul Colliers, from Oxford University, which in 2019 released his book The Future of Capitalism, where he dealt with global inequalities. The latest is James Robinson of the University of Chicago, co-author of Why Countries Fail, along with Daron Acemoğlu.