Regis Bonelli, scholar and researcher devoted to studies on Brazil’s industrial and economic development, passed away on Wednesday, December 13, at the age of 75.

Bonelli was an Applied Economics researcher at FGV’s Brazilian Institute of Economics (IBRE), which he joined in 2008, as well as General Coordinator of FGV’s IBRE’s Macro Bulletin. The last works of his 50-year academic career included coordinating and co-authoring ‘Anatomia da Produtividade no Brasil 2017’ [Anatomy of Productivity in 2017 Brazil] (FGV IBRE, Elsevier), ‘A Crise de Crescimento no Brasil’ [The Growth Crisis in Brazil] (2016, FGV IBRE, Elsevier), ‘Indústria e Desenvolvimento Produtivo no Brasil’ [Industry and Productive Development in Brazil] (2015, FGV IBRE, Elsevier), and ‘Ensaios IBRE de Economia Brasileira II’ [IBRE Essays on Brazilian Economy II] (2014, FGV IBRE, Elsevier).

Bonelli held a degree in Engineering from PUC-Rio (1965) and a PhD in Economics from University of California – Berkeley (1975).  One of his most prominent works is ‘Os limites do possível: notas sobre balanço de pagamentos e indústria nos anos 70’ [The limits of what is possible: appointments on the balance of payments and industry in the 1970’s]. Published in 1976 in the journal Pesquisa e Planejamento Econômico (Ipea), co-authored with former Brazilian Minister of Finance, Pedro Malan, it was a critical paper for the administration’s strategy at the time, which culminated in the country’s indebtedness and debt crisis, and was required reading for university entrance exams. “I met Bonelli in 1986 through this study, which was one of the most important pieces of literature from the 1970’s,” said Samuel Pessôa, associate researcher at IBRE, at an event in honor of Bonelli’s 70^th birthday held at FGV in 2012. Malan, who was a colleague of Bonelli at PUC and at Berkeley, pointed out then the importance of preserving the freedom of research at the time, giving space to opinions different than the government’s line of action within the Institute.

Regis Bonelli participated in the group that kicked off the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea) in the 1960’s, alongside economists such as Albert Fishlow, Edmar Bacha, and Marcelo de Paiva Abreu, in addition to Malan. In addition to working as a professor at PUC-Rio, he researched issues such as income distribution and the country’s economic transition in the early 1990’s.

Bonelli was also General Director of the IBGE (1985 to 1987) and Research Director at Ipea (1988 to 1990). He was also Executive Director of the Brazilian Development Bank - BNDES (1994 to 1995). In 2002, he went to University of Oxford, in England, as a visiting researcher at the Centre for Brazilian Studies, and as a Senior Associate Member of St. Antony’s College. In 2007, he became an associate researcher at the Institute for Economic Policy Studies (Iepe), Casa das Garças. He was also a consultant to the Institute for Work and Society Studies (Iets) and the Center for Foreign Trade Studies Foundation (Funcex). In 2008, he joined the group of researchers of FGV’s IBRE, and also worked as a member of the Economic Cycles Dating Committee (Codace).