But, returning to the 1960s, we observe that the Nobel dynamic in Sweden existed to promote a certain species of economics, not all possible versions of economics indiscriminately. The legitimate profession had to be constrained to a sharply circumscribed intellectual ambit. This is another fact to which Åsbrink, Lindbeck, and Lundberg could not openly admit. Lindbeck, in his retrospective offered to an American audience, made the smarmy comment that the ideological perspectives of the prizewinners "have, of course, been neglected." It was imperative that the Swedish committee for the ersatz Nobel evade the very thing that outsiders suspected all along was definitely a major consideration. As Lindbeck continued, "Has the selection committee viewed the award as a chance to influence the direction of new research in economics? The answer is definitely no."

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 478