Economic mainstream and power: a profile analysis of Central Bank directors during PSDB and PT governments in Brazil

摘要

This paper analyses the professional and educational backgrounds of members of the Board of Directors of Central Bank of Brazil in the period between the beginning of the first Fernando Henriquea??s term and the end of Dilma Rousseffa??s first term. The paper puts forward two novelties. First, a database synthesizing the information from the curricula of the abovementioned individuals. Second, modern literature in the field of methodology of economics is used to categorize the educational backgrounds of those individuals with education in economics. Our general findings point to a differentiation between two types of members in the Board of Directors. The first type is the one generally recruited for the positions concerned with organizational issues within the Bank, and the second is usually the one that occupies posts directly related to the decision making of economic policies. However, we did not identify significant differences between the types of individuals chosen by PSDB and PT governments.