This article analyzes ministerial profiles and the relation between expertise and type of ministry for the case of the four Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia administrations in Chile between 1990 and 2010. The objective is to improve empirical knowledge about these topics relating two different literatures: the one developed for the study of ministerial elites and the other related to technocratic studies. The argument is that there is a relationship between type of ministry (political, social, economic or mixed) and the expertise (formal education) of ministries. Statistical analysis confirms our hypothesis; there is a relation between doctoral formation in economics and the ministries defined as economic ones. © Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.