Abstract
On Sunday morning in Lima, Peruvian television viewers can tune in to Promoviendo, a fast-paced talk show filled with practical advice on how to start your own micro-business. The energetic fortysomething host is Guido Pennano, an economist and former Minister of Industry. Pennano’s previous television credits include regular appearances as a guest commentator on the news program, En persona. Prior to his high-profile political and television career, Pennano had already secured his place in elite circles as an “insider.” He was a co-founder of Medio de cambio, a respected, upscale economics magazine that gave birth to other ventures such as Medio de marketing, a market research publication. He held a professorial post in economics at the Universidad del Pacifico, where he had done his undergraduate work prior to earning a master’s degree in economics from the University of Pittsburgh.
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Notes
Assistance to the author on this project was generously provided by the Centro de Investigación of the Universidad del Pacífico and Carlos Bustamante Baldeón. Commentaries by my colleagues at the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos — Julio Cotler, Efraín Gonzales, Romeo Grompone, and Francisco Verdera — were also of great help. Funding tor the research was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The source is Cavanaugh (1992). The book is a Who’s Who organized by professions. A reputational methodology was used to compile the lists; 93 names appear on the list of “top” economists.
Twenty-eight of the 30 interviewees appear on the previously cited list of top economists in Peru. Two of the interviewees (Carlos Boloña and Julio Velarde) did not appear on the list, but they were among the names most frequently cited by interviewees as being the “most influential” economists in public life — thus, they were included in the interview pool. The selection of the interviewees was not completely random; an cffort was made to insure variation across the political and ideological spectrum. Interviews for the project were conducted in April and August 1993. The following economists generously gave of their time in interviews: Luis Abugattás, Augusto Alvarez, Carlos Amat, Carlos Boloña, Gianfranco Castagnola, Enrique Cornejo, Oscar Dancourt, Hernando de Soto, Javier Escobal, Jorge Fernández Baca, César Ferrari, Efraín Gonzales de Olarte, Fernando Gonzáles Vigil, Jorge González lzquierdo, Juan Carlos Hurtado Miller, Javier lguíñiz, Felix Jiménez, Felipe Morris, Guido Pennano, Teobaldo Pinzas, Santiago Roca, Virgilio Roel, Manuel Romero, Gustavo Saberbein, Francisco Sagasti, Ratil Salazar, Bruno Seminario, Javier Silva Ruete. Julio Velarde, and Richard Webb.
Prior to 1928, economics courses in San Marcos had been taught as part of Political and Administrative Sciences and were designed for civil servants. For an overview of the early development of economics in San Marcos see Zanconetti (1986).
For a fascinating account of the political environment within public universities in the 1970s see Lynch (1990).
According to one informant, neoclassical theory was taught without great enthusiasm by instructors at the Pacifico in the 1970s. He recalled that one professor, after dutifully teaching micro-economic mathematical models, concluded the class with the commentary, “ésto no sirve para nada.”
Defining the bounds and the educational criteria for inclusion is an important element in the institutionalization of any profession. For a discussion of this process see Safartti (1977).
Among the economists most frequently cited by interviewees as most influential in public life were: Richard Webb, Carlos Boloña, Manuel Moyrera, Felipe Ortiz de Zevallos, Roberto Abusada, Javier Silva Ruete, Javier lguíñiz and Daniel Carbonetto. Moyrera’s formal training is as an attorney; Ortiz de Zevallos and Carbonetto were trained as engineers.
Interview, Jorge González lzquierdo, Lima, April 1993.
Interview, Lima, April 20, 1993. Another interviewee from San Marcos noted that the stratification also included a racial angle — i.e., that economists from the Católica and Pacífico were more likely to be middle or upper-class whites.
The data from the Peru Report listings probably under-represent the incidence of international work. There is a wide variation in the biographical information that participating economists made available; some participants listed their work experiences in great detail, while others did not.
Hernando de Soto’s views on the informal sector and research by 1LD were published in the book authored by de Soto (1989). For a review of de Soto’s ideas and the work of the ILD, see Bromley (1994).
Many think tanks in the US also have ongoing relationships to parties. For a discussion of the structure and impact of think tanks in American politics see Allen Smith (1991), and Ricci (1993).
The introduction to the definitive volume on heterodox policies notes that Alan Garcia published an article in the magazine, Marka, in 1981 that anticipated much of the heterodox program. See Carbonetto et al. (1987: 13).
The greater emphasis in the Peruvian economics profession on playing an active role in political life and influencing public policy more closely resembles the European model of career advancement in the profession than the American model. In the American model, advancement in the profession is determined largely by academic production, especially one’s contribution to economic theory. For a comparison of the career trajectories of American and European economistas see Frey and Eichenberger (1993).
Interview, Lima, April 20, 1993.
Boloña’s manueverings in the weeks after the coup and his use of the resignation threat to extend his control over cabinet is described by Augusto Blacker Miller in La propuesta inconclusa, pp. 209–20. In the course of the in-fighting, Blacker Miller was forced out of his post.
A variety of credits from the International Development Bank were delayed or postponed after the coup; financial flows from Paris Club members were also delayed, see Velarde (1994:147).
Along with Boloña, Toledo and Pennano, the other economists who are frequently considered to be presidenciable include former World Bank staffer, Francisco Sagasti, best-selling author Hernando de Soto and Pacífico University professor, Jorge González lzquierdo.
The “intellectualizing” of politics by social scientists in Chile during the regime transition is discussed at length by Puryear (1994).
Carlos Boloña and Hernando de Soto advised President Fujimori to accede to the pressures from the OAS to stage a legislative election after the autocoup in 1992, in part to assure that economic sanctions would not be taken against Peru. Economists, like the rest of the Peruvian elite, divided in sup-porting or opposing the auto-coup. Boloña’s decision to stay in the cabinet after the coup certainly helped to legitimize the new regime. Given their diffuse relationships with parties, economists were not major strategists within the opposition regarding whether or not to cooperate in the “electoralization” of the post-coup regime. For a discussion of the post-coup politics see López Jiménez (1995).
The nexus between technocrats and parties has been crucial in progressive reforms. For a discussion of the relationship in local politics in the United States, see Finegold (1995).
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Conaghan, C.M. (1998). Stars of the Crisis: The Ascent of Economists in Peruvian Public Life. In: Centeno, M.A., Silva, P. (eds) The Politics of Expertise in Latin America. Latin American Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26185-7_8
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