Educational Establishment of Niavaran School Formation history of governmental educational institutions in free market economy and management

Niavaran School is a name which has been ascribed to a coherent group of economists advocating Free Market Economy. In first two decades following the Islamic revolution of Iran, this group of economists joined Plan and Budget Organization and took responsibility to write the first three development plans. They prescribed privatization and structural reform policies which have been the origin of many social issues and changes after the revolution. By the beginning of the eleventh government, they came back to policy-making arena and, in addition to intervening in government’s daily economic policies, took the responsibility of writing the sixth development plan.This paper aims to investigate the history of educational institutions which were established by this group to reinforce the discourse of free market economy in Iranian academic and political spheres. For this purpose, it studies documents and interviews with prominent figures of Niavaran School regarding the formation of academic majors. So, it seeks to provide an overview of how educational institutions of this school were established and raised three generations of pro-liberalization experts in management and economics. It finally sheds light on conditions of the formation of these institutions by looking at sources, facilities and relations with politicians at power which founders took benefit of and also methods of selecting specific students.