Economists’ views on economic decision-making: liberalization vs. technocratization

Within the vast literature on the political influence of mainstream economists, several recent studies have suggested that this influence is not limited to affecting policies as such (mostly in the direction of economic liberalization), but also to economic decision-making. Specifically, economists and economic theories stood behind the depoliticization and de-democratization of economic decision-making, not least in advanced capitalist democracies. Indeed, some researchers suggest that the consensus among economists with regard to issues like who should manage economic policies and how is much stronger than with regard to issues of like whether the government should intervene in the economy and how much. Nevertheless, so far there was no systematic empirical examination of that suggestion. Accordingly, this paper asks: Is there a consensus among mainstream economists with regard to questions of economic decision-making and government, and if so, is it stronger than the consensus among economists with regard to policy interventions? In line with the insights suggested by the literature on that topic, I hypothesize that there is a strong consensus among economists with regard to issues of economic decision-making/government and that it is stronger than the consensus among them with regard to economic policy. Specifically, I hypothesize that economists would tend to support the depoliticization of economic decision-making even more than they would support economic liberalization. The paper further asks: Which economists – progressives (American “liberals”) or conservatives (European “liberals”) – are more likely to support the depoliticization of economic decision-making? On the one hand, progressive economists are likely to support the depoliticization of economic policymaking since it would increase the chances the interventions that they support would be implemented and based on professional rather than political considerations. On the other hand, conservative economists are likely to support depoliticization as means to minimize the risk of government intervention, which they might consider as greater among politicians. Methodologically, the paper will answer these questions by using an original dataset that uses data from the Initiative on Global Markets – a body which regularly survey the opinions of several dozens of prominent mainstream economists in the US and Europe on various policy-related issues. The dataset includes individual-level responses to questions on macroeconomic intervention (e.g. whether the government should employ demand management) with responses to questions on macroeconomic governance (whether the central bank should be independent), and thereby allows to examine both the relative consensus among economists with regard to each type of question and the relations between economists’ opinions on policy interventions and their opinions on economic decision-making and government.