a transição republicana"") and became a reference to the period it covers. In sequence, Franco was accepted in Ph.D programs in the universities of Chicago, Yale and Harvard, for which he headed. There he chose as fields of specialization, international economics under Jeffrey Sachs and economic history under Barry Eichengreen. He had brief fellowships at the CFIA (Center for International Affairs), CES (Centre for European Studies) and National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Sachs and Eichengreen were his supervisors, and along with MIT professor Lance Taylor, formed his thesis committee. Franco earned his Ph.D Degree at Harvard in 1986, with a dissertation titled Aspects of the Economics of Hyperinflations: Theoretical Issues and Historical Studies of Four European Hyperinflations of the 1920s. His original thesis had four theoretical chapters on topics as the adoption of indexation in contracts, inflation (stabilization) as public good problem, plagued by free rider issues, the inflation tax as motivation to the process and the dynamics of dollarization, distributive tensions and external balance. The applied chapters were case studies for Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Poland, also including some common themes like the relation between external imbalances, dollarization and fiscal reforms in the context of specific stabilization experiences. This work was nominated to the David Wells Prize in Harvard and was awarded a national prize ("Prêmio Haralambos Simionides") in 1987, for the best Ph.D. thesis or book in economics, given by the National Association of Graduate Studies in Economics (ANPEC, Associação Nacional de Centros de Pós Graduação em Economia). Teaching and research Returning to Brazil in 1986, as a faculty member at the Economics Department at PUC-Rio, Franco worked as teacher, researcher and consultant from 1986 to 1993 when he was called to work with Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the newly nominated Finance Minister then starting his tenure. He had an intense academic activity during these years; his research interests had three key themes: (i) on high inflation and on the basis of topics and issues raised in his doctoral dissertation; (ii) on Brazil's economic history, mostly in connection with macroeconomic and monetary issues; and (iii) on trade policies, multinational enterprises and economic development, in collaboration with Winston Fritsch. Hyperinflation Two papers out of specific chapters of his doctoral dissertation were published in peer reviewed journals and had some relevant repercussion on his later work of fighting hyperinflation in Brazil: "Fiscal Reforms and Stabilization: four hyperinflation cases examined" was