After they finished their studies and returned to Latin America, they adopted positions in numerous South American governments including the military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990), as economic advisors.
The Chicago Boys rose to prominence as leaders of the early reforms initiated in Chile during General Augusto Pinochet's rule.
Alessandri rejected El ladrillo, but it was revisited after the 1973 Chilean coup d'état on 11 September 1973 brought Augusto Pinochet to power, and it became the basis of the new regime's economic policy.
After the coup when the Chicago boys were given power and El ladrillo was implemented, the Chilean GDP fell by about 15% by 1982 and government spending increased slightly.
The anti-Marxist junta supported radical free market policies promoted by the Chicago Boys as a part of their destruction of Marxism.
After the end of the military rule and return to democracy this specific group lost power and many joined the private sector, although their policies and effects still remained in place in many areas.
These policies and their effects are both highly controversial in Chile and around the World and represent a major divide in Chilean politics to this day.
New policies such as structural adjustment, free trade, and tax cuts became incredibly popular with conservative political groups throughout the western world.
These economists continued to shape the economies of their respective countries, and include people like Mexico's Sócrates Rizzo, Francisco Gil Díaz, Fernando Sanchez Ugarte, Carlos Isoard y Viesca, Argentina's Ruben D. Almonacid, Adolfo Diz, Roque Fernández, Carlos Alfredo Rodríguez, Fernando de Santibañes and Ricardo Lopez Murphy, Brazil's Paulo Guedes, as well as others in Peru, Colombia, Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Panama.