<p>Until recently Chicago’s undergraduate classes were a lot smaller and Chicago was a lot less selective so it’s not surprising Stanford has more accomplished alumni. Chicago is also certainly better than many academic fields as well. Even if it didn’t produce a ton of revenue generating alumni the influence Chicago econ had on the world was huge. This may not matter if the goal of a university is to grow a large endowment but surely influencing the world is another important goal of universities. Nor has Stanford monopolized tech either; MIT, CMU, Berkeley, and Caltech among others are quite strong in these fields as well.</p>