History

The history of the Department of Economics (ECO) is very much intertwined with the history of the University of Brasilia (UNB).

On January 15, 1962, Decree no. 500 established the University of Brasilia Foundation (FUB), approved its statute, and determined the structure of UnB, inaugurated on April 21, 1962. The UNB Guiding Plan established that the new university would be constituted around eight central institutes, which would be divided into departments and faculties. However, the faculty did not wait for these definitions to begin their academic activities. A resolution of the Governing Council authorized the immediate deployment of three transitory programs (considered core programs) that constituted the embryo of UnB. These were Law, Economics and Administration; Architecture and Urbanism; and Brazilian Letters, which included literature and journalism.

ECO is now about to turn 60 years old. The Graduate Program in Economics (PPGECO) is a little younger. At the beginning of the 1970s, young and talented economists returned to Brazil after completing their doctorates, mainly at universities in the USA and the United Kingdom. Some of them converged at UNB: Edmar Bacha, Flávio Versiani, Maria Tereza de Oliveira, Ricardo Lima, and Charles Mueller, among others, and created PPGECO: the Master's Program in Economics (in fact, in economic policy). Soon in its beginning, the Master's Program in Economics of UnB joined other graduate programs in economics (University of São Paulo, Federal University of Bahia, the Getulio Vargas Foundation, the Federal University of Pernambuco) to create the National Association of Graduate Programs in Economics (ANPEC). This all happened in 1973.

In the following two decades, PPGECO consolidated itself as one of the best master's programs in Economics in Brazil. It was rated as grade A (system used at the time) by the evaluations carried out by the Coordination of the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for almost two decades. Its professors and master's program alumni have taken on important roles in Brazilian public management: one dean, two senators, president of the Brazilian Central Bank, a Minister of State, and state secretaries. Many went on to obtain their doctorate degree and became professors at Brazilian and foreign universities. Internally, PPGECO students began to organize themselves in research centers/groups, encouraged by the UNB administration and initiatives of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

All this motivated the faculty to take new steps. The 1990s brought numerous changes that put PPGECO on an even higher level of academic quality. In 1996, the doctorate in economics program was launched. For the first class, five doctoral students were selected, evidence of the caution that has always characterized the decisions of the PPGECO faculty: growth without sacrificing the quality of teaching and research activities. With this guarantee, we have reached the selection of 20 students per year over the past five years.

In 1997, a new milestone was reached. One of the research centers of PPGECO became the first center headquartered in UnB to be selected by PRONEX - the National Program of Support for Excellence Centers of the Ministry of Science and Technology/CNPq/Funding Authority for Studies and Projects (created by Decree No. 1.857, of April 10, 1996). The choice of NEPAMA - Center for Agricultural and Environmental Studies and Policies (currently CEEMA - Center of Studies on Economy, Environment, and Agriculture) consolidated the organization of teachers, masters and doctoral students into research groups/centers in PPGECO. It also led to an internal analysis of the feasibility of incorporating the already-consolidated research groups/centers as research lines/areas of concentration of PPGECO.

The following year (1998) marks the beginning of another component of PPGECO: the creation of professional master's degrees. Two consolidated centers (CEEMA and NESP – Center of Public Sector Economics) approved, at all regimental levels of UnB and CAPES/MEC, two professional master's degrees: A) Economic Management of the Environment and B) Public Sector Economics. These were the first two professional masters at UnB. In addition to being pioneers, the two programs, which continue to operate successfully and with high quality twenty years later, motivated the creation of other professional master's programs. Furthermore, there was the establishment of an inexhaustible source of current topics for scientific research and future candidates for a Doctorate in Economics.

At the beginning of the current century, PPGECO is well-structured upon a solid tripod: an academic master's program (ANPEC), a professional master's program, and a doctorate program in economics. Two improvements took place over the last twenty years. At the end of the 2010's, four lines of research/areas of concentration that reflect the established research centers/groups were made explicit in the doctoral program in economics. At the end of the 2010s, a new organization chart of PPGECO was established, which updated its form but not its essence.