Event Details
- Date and Time: Friday, April 9, 2021, 11:00AM EST
- Hosts: Co-sponsored by the Yale Department of Economics, Economic Growth Center, and International and Development Economics Masters Program
Event Description
When Brazil emerged from military rule in the 1980s, the resource-rich country was poised for strong and steady growth. By 2019 it had the largest economy in Latin America and the 9th largest in the word. The intervening years, however, saw periods of rampant inflation, high unemployment, and scandal – and today Brazil has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world. What has gone right and wrong in Brazil, and how can this diverse country emerge from the Covid-19 economic crisis on a path to greater prosperity for all of its citizens?
Edmar Bacha attended Yale’s International Development and Economics (IDE) Masters program in the 1960s and went on to gain a PhD from Yale Economics. In the 1990s, Bacha was part of a group of economists who came up with a plan based on a virtual currency, Units of Real Value (URV), that succeeded in slowing Brazil’s rampant inflation and helped turn the economy around. Now he returns to Yale (virtually) to give a presentation, “What's gone wrong with Brazil's economy?” and discuss research with Ana Cecilia Fieler, Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics.
The event was part of the celebration of EGC’s 60th and IDE’s 65th anniversaries, and concluded a multi-day forum for students, affiliates, and alumni to hear from an array of IDE graduates who are now faculty at top tier research universities and influential policymakers.
Ana Cecilia Fieler