¹McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, USA

Correspondence: J Muir Macpherson, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, USA. E-mail: jmm272@georgetown.edu

Abstract

Based on an analysis of privatization acts and self-collected data on 13,422 economists, this paper statistically explores whether the diffusion of the 'diffusers', American-trained economists, influenced adoption of an economic policy. The results show that the diffusion of privatization was significantly affected by American-trained economists in the adopting countries and by the broader debates in the construction of economic ideas. The qualitative assessment of the enactment of privatization identifies the role of technocrats as handmaidens to broader national strategies. These results offer the interpretation of a transnational community, whose ideas evolve by an ongoing construction rather than by a diffusion of a reputed homogeneous American ideology.