ECLAC expresses its condolences on the death of the prominent economist Maria da Conceição Tavares

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) expresses its condolences for the death of the prominent Luso-Brazilian economist and intellectual Maria da Conceição Tavares, who died on June 8, 2024 at the age of 94.

Born in Portugal and naturalized Brazilian, Maria da Conceição Tavares was one of the founders and exponents of ECLAC and Latin American neostructuralist thought. Considered one of the greatest female economists in Latin America, her academic production has been a reference in the debate on Brazilian and Latin American economic development. Working closely with Celso Furtado, Aníbal Pinto, Oswaldo Sunkel, Carlos Lessa, Antônio Barros de Castro and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, among other leading economists in the region, the intellectual production of Maria da Conceição Tavares stands out for her critical contributions to the process of import substitution in the 1960s, the origin and nature of the economic crisis and hyperinflation that impacted Brazil in the 1980s, and the neoliberalizing reforms of the 1990s.

Maria da Conceição Tavares worked at the newly created ECLAC Office in Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s and at the CEPAL/BNDES Economic Development Center, which operated in Rio de Janeiro between 1960 and 1967, during which time she taught training on the problems of economic development, training a generation of experts in economic planning who dedicated themselves to seeking to overcome the structural gaps of underdevelopment. In the 1970s, the prominent economist worked at the ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile, teaching courses from ILPES and continuing her contribution to the training of local economists capable of formulating and implementing economic development programs in America. Latina.

ECLAC expresses its deep sadness and regret at the departure of the eminent economist and friend of ECLAC and Latin America, Maria da Conceição Tavares, who will always be remembered for her commitment and fight against underdevelopment. The teacher and leader Maria da Conceição Tavares leaves a legacy of extensive intellectual contribution on economic development in Brazil and Latin America and of training a generation of economic development planning policymakers and academics who followed her critical and unique thinking on the development.

“An economy that does not care about social justice is an economy that condemns people to what is happening around the world: a brutal concentration of income and wealth, unemployment and misery”

Maria da Conceição Tavares