October 21, 2026 12:57PM # The Chicago Boys and Chile’s Economic Success By [Jeffrey Miron](https://www.cato.org/people/jeffrey-miron) --- SHARE Listen to this article Generated with [ ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io/) AI technology. Loading the [Elevenlabs Text to Speech](https://elevenlabs.io/text-to-speech) AudioNative Player... Economic reform doesn’t usually make for a good movie, except in [the case of](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Boys_(film)) the “Chicago Boys,” a group of UChicago-trained Chilean economists who instituted neoliberal reforms in concert with the Pinochet dictatorship. [New research](https://www.cato.org/research-briefs-economic-policy/chicago-boys-chiles-long-run-growth) examines the long-run effects of these reforms. By comparing > Chile’s economic performance with an estimate of how its economy might have developed without the reforms … \[the researchers found that the\] 2019 real GDP per capita was approximately $4,012 higher than it would otherwise have been, a gain of about 41 percent relative to the estimated alternative. Some question > whether the gains reflect the outcomes of economic liberalization or the military dictatorship itself … \[but the findings\] suggest that the dictatorship’s establishment alone does not explain Chile’s later economic success. … The reforms also outlasted military rule: Elected governments maintained much of the economic framework after Chile returned to democracy. The study highlights the > the importance of distinguishing economic policy from political regime: The evidence points to gains associated with liberalization, rather than demonstrating that the authoritarian government was necessary for economic success. *Cross-posted from* [*Substack*](https://jeffreymiron.substack.com/)*.* ##### Related Tags [Libertarianism](https://www.cato.org/libertarianism) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).