Born in
São Paulo to a middle-class family of
Italian immigrants, Netto attended Liceu Siqueira Campos before enrolling in the
School of Economics, Business and Accounting of the University of São Paulo, where he was part of the school's third intake and headed the Academic Center Visconde de Cairu (
pt), graduating in 1951. The next year, he was hired as assistant professor. He earned a doctorate with a thesis on the economy of coffee, becoming a full-time professor at the University of São Paulo in 1958. Netto worked in Carvalho Pinto's government of São Paulo and later became Minister of Finance under the state government of
Laudo Natel. In 1967, president
Artur da Costa e Silva invited him to work at the Ministry of Finance. In December 1968, amid the escalation of the political climate, Netto, alongside other high-profile bureaucrats, signed the
Institutional Act Number.Five, a decree penned by the jurist
Luís da Gama e Silva that warranted the
military dictatorship extraordinary powers, culminating in a period of political repression. == Electoral history ==