Ever since the first elite business schools were founded in Europe and the United States during the late 1800s and early 1900s, they have enjoyed an intimate relationship with economics. Despite some notable analyses of economics’ importance for the successful institutionalization of business schools, an understanding of the relation between economics and elite business schools requires further development. As such, this paper focuses on ‘economics as symbolic capital’ for the consecration of business schools as elite settings, with particular emphasis on the symbolic aspects of economics’ cultural and social capital. Consecration can be seen as critical to the institutionalization of elite business schools; in contrast to the primary focus of previous studies on the material significance of economics in business schools, my chief concern is the discipline’s symbolic power and importance for business schools’ status as elite institutions in many countries today. Data from a study on Sweden’s elite business school, The Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), were based on both historical and contemporary sources, including archival material, biographies, statistics, participant observations, and interviews with faculty and students. The SSE is one of the world’s oldest elite business schools where economics has played a critical role ever since its establishment; the SSE’s economics faculty has a unique relation to the ultimate source of capital for contemporary global economics, namely, The Nobel Prize in Economics, which exerts a significant influence on the discipline’s general standing and status today.

自从 1800 年代末和 1900 年代初第一批精英商学院在欧洲和美国成立以来，它们就与经济学有着密切的关系。尽管对经济学对商学院成功制度化的重要性进行了一些值得注意的分析，但对经济学与精英商学院之间关系的理解需要进一步发展。因此，本文将重点放在“经济学作为象征资本”上，以将商学院作为精英设置，特别强调经济学文化和社会资本的象征性方面。奉献可以被视为精英商学院制度化的关键；与以往研究的主要重点是商学院经济学的实质意义不同，我主要关心的是该学科对于商学院在当今许多国家作为精英机构的地位的象征性力量和重要性。瑞典精英商学院斯德哥尔摩经济学院 (SSE) 的研究数据基于历史和当代资源，包括档案材料、传记、统计数据、参与者观察以及对教师和学生的采访。SSE 是世界上历史最悠久的精英商学院之一，自成立以来，经济学就在其中发挥了关键作用；上证所的经济学系与当代全球经济学的终极资本来源，即诺贝尔经济学奖有着独特的关系，这对该学科今天的总体地位和地位产生了重大影响。