A tireless thinker: From the two methods to the new developmentalism

This article presents two important contributions made by Professor Luiz Carlos Bresser Pereira to the study of Economic Sciences: the understanding of the historical-deductive and hypotheticaldeductive methods to analyze economic systems and the theory of new developmentalism - an alternative proposal to neoliberalism aimed at fostering catch-up growth and developing middle-income countries. The article was divided into three main sections, in addition to the introduction and conclusion. The first section presents the two methods used to analyze economic systems - the historical-deductive and the hypothetical-deductive methods, explaining the former's grounding in reality and the latter's reliance on logical coherence. It is argued that the historical-deductive method should be used in precedence of the hypothetical-deductive method, which should be used in an auxiliary way. The second section presents the theory of new developmentalism, which advocates for state intervention to maintain optimal levels of five macroeconomic prices - profit rate, interest rate, exchange rate, wages and inflation rate. The problem faced by developing countries - the Dutch disease - and a proposal for its neutralization are also presented. In the third section, a brief reflection will be made on Bresser-Pereira's work and why he is considered a tireless thinker.