Chicago Boy

noun

Any of a group of Chilean economists prominent around the 1970s and 1980s, the majority of whom trained at the Department of Economics of the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger, or at its affiliate in the economics department at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Meanings

nounChicago Boy (plural Chicago Boys)

plural Chicago Boys

  1. historicalin pluraleconomicsAny of a group of Chilean economists prominent around the 1970s and 1980s, the majority of whom trained at the Department of Economics of the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger, or at its affiliate in the economics department at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

    Eventually things got so bad that Pinochet was forced to respond by firing many of the Chicago Boys and renationalising many of the privatised companies and banks.

    2017, Jason Hickel, “The Chile Experiment”, in The Divide […] , London: William Heinemann, →ISBN
    1 more example

    The Chicago Boys label came from the fact that Mr. Baraona and several others who drafted and managed the program to turn Chile away from statism studied economics at the University of Chicago and became disciples of Milton Friedman's free-market faith.

    1990 October 8, Shirley Christian, “Free-Market Lessons Of Chile's 'Chicago Boys'”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
Cite this entry
APA

Chicago Boy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Chicago%20Boy

MLA

“Chicago Boy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Chicago%20Boy. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Chicago Boy,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Chicago%20Boy.

Source: Chicago Boy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.