The 'Vanderbilt Boys' and the Modernization of Brazilian Economics

The Brazilian Connection in Milton Friedman’s 1967 Presidential Address and 1976 Nobel Lecture

“…Vanderbilt University and the University of São Paulo, led by Werner Baer after he left Yale for Vanderbilt (Suprinyak and Fernández 2018). Some Brazilian economic students did go to Chicago for their PhDs at the time, though.…”

Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Development Economist

“…In 1954, the university inaugurated a Summer Institute on Economic Development, a training program designed for students coming from underdeveloped areas, which in 1956 morphed into the Graduate Program in Economic Development (GPED). The initiative built on the groundwork laid by Vanderbilt's Institute for Brazilian Studies, active between 1947 and 1953, and especially on the vision of Reynold Carlson, Georgescu-Roegen's friend and colleague, who had by then already accumulated a large experience working on aid missions to Latin America (Suprinyak & Fernandez 2018). The program was initially funded by the International Cooperation Administration, and subsequently received generous grants from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations.…”

“…39 The project was alternatively titled 'Studies in the Theory of Economic Development', and served as an umbrella for Georgescu-Roegen's scholarly endeavors during the crucial years 1967-71, building on the notion that "traditional, nonmarket, and especially agricultural societies present specific problems that cannot be formulated within the neoclassical economic framework". 40 Meanwhile, Georgescu-Roegen returned to Brazil in 1966 as part of the recently-signed agreement between Vanderbilt and the University of São Paulo (Suprinyak & Fernandez 2018). Back at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation for another series of lectures, he presented a preliminary version of 'The Economics of Production', which was later published in Portuguese under the title 'A Critical Analysis of the Neoclassical Production Function' (1970).…”