Bresser Pereira, Luiz Carlos (1934–)

Luiz Carlos Bresser Pereira (b. 30 June 1934), Brazilian economist. Born in São Paulo, Bresser Pereira received a law degree from the University of São Paulo (USP) in 1957. After joining the faculty of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo (FGV-SP) in 1959, he went to Michigan State University, where he earned an M.B.A. in 1961. Returning to Brazil, he continued his academic career at FGV-SP, becoming a full professor in 1972, the same year in which he earned a Ph.D. in economics from USP. A prolific writer, he has written more than fifteen books and hundreds of articles covering a broad array of subjects. Sometimes characterized as a neo-structuralist, he took the role of the state in the process of economic development as a major theme of research. In the early 1980s, together with Yoshiaki Nakano, he wrote seminal contributions to the formulation of the theory of inertial inflation. He also had a successful career in the private sector (as administrative director of a major Brazilian supermarket chain) and was politically active (as one of the leading economists of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB)—the main opposition party to the military regime).

In 1983, Bresser Pereira was appointed president of the state-owned bank of São Paulo (BANESPA), and from March 1985 to April 1987 he served both the Montoro and the Quércia administrations as state secretary. Appointed by President José Sarney, Bresser Pereira replaced Dilson Funaro on 29 April 1987 as Brazil's finance minister after the collapse of the Cruzado Plan. His stabilization program (the Bresser Plan) relied on a temporary price freeze and on measures of fiscal austerity. When the resistance of President Sarney to fiscal austerity became evident, Bresser Pereira resigned on 18 December 1987. He is also known for his attempts to persuade foreign creditors of the necessity for debt relief in developing countries.

See alsoBrazil, Political Parties: Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB); Sarney, José.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Oxhorn, Phillip. What Kind of Democracy? What Kind of Market? Latin America in the Age of Neoliberalism. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.

Pereira, Luis Carlos Bresser. Economic Crisis and State Reform in Brazil: Toward a New Interpretation of Latin America. Boulder, CO: L. Reinner, 1996.

Pereira, Luis Carlos Bresser. Economic Reforms in New Democracies: A Social-Democratic Approach. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Williamson, John. The Political Economy of Policy Reform. Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics, 1994.

                            Carlos Alberto Primo Braga