School of Government among Top 5 for economic research in Mexico

For the School of Government and Public Transformation at Tec de Monterrey, research does not end when it is published in a scientific journal. The next step is to apply that knowledge to public decision-making. 

According to Miguel Ángel Santos, the school’s Dean, this approach to research has placed them among the top five economic research institutions in Mexico, according to the Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) ranking.  

Santos, who is also a research professor, points out that this achievement is part of a process of academic strengthening that combines high-level scientific research with applied work in collaboration with governments and international organizations. 

“There’s no school without research, and there’s no school without the implementation of applied research”. 

He adds that this recognition takes on special significance because the institution is a school of public policy with a multidisciplinary approach, not a faculty specializing in economics. 

“We’re a school of public policy, not economics, and I’m incredibly proud that our economists have helped rank the school among the Top 5”. 

Behind this result lies a strategy to strengthen the school’s scientific capacity. Over the past three years, this strategy has made it possible to triple both the number of scientific articles published and the number of projects carried out in collaboration with governments. 

The ranking is compiled by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Research Papers in Economics (RePEc). It is a collaborative database that brings together publications, authors, and institutions specializing in economics and measures scholarly output in that discipline.  

In this edition, it evaluated 82 Mexican institutions, with the top spots going to ITAM, Banco de México, CIDE, El Colegio de México, and the Tec’s School of Government and Public Transformation. 

The strategy to strengthen its scientific activity includes the recruitment of researchers with international experience, the consolidation of an interdisciplinary ecosystem, and the Tec’s research model, which allows faculty members to reduce their teaching load so they can devote more time to research. 

Currently, about half of the faculty members come from universities ranked among the top 50 in the world, and about 85% earned their doctorates from institutions ranked in the international top 100. 

“Researchers are more productive when they’re in a place where there are other people like them, who they can get ideas from, and if those ideas come from another discipline, even better”, says Santos. 

He explains that two decisions were crucial to consolidating that model: increasing the number of international faculty members and hiring researchers who already had an established academic track record. 

As a result, the school recruited researchers trained at universities such as Harvard, Columbia, and Berkeley and built a scientific community composed of specialists in economics, public health, education, artificial intelligence, regional development, and demography. 

For Santos, strengthening the research community makes sense if that knowledge is applied in the real world. 

“We’re a school that’s publishing more and more in top journals, but we’re also a school that engages with the real world and carries out projects that make an impact in Mexico and around the world”, says the dean. 

This approach has led the school to collaborate with international organizations and governments in various countries to support decision-making.  

One such project has been underway for three years in El Salvador, where researchers identified sectors with growth potential and proposed public policies to remove barriers to development. 

After completing the study, the school began working with the Salvadoran government to implement the strategy derived from that analysis. Based on that experience, the school launched a similar project in Honduras. 

“Cases like El Salvador’s are very important achievements. They create many jobs and have a very significant impact on quality of life. That was a result of the government’s policies but also the fact that the government acted on the findings of the investigation”, says the Tec dean. 

The school’s agenda also includes projects on public health, education, regional development, and climate change. 

Notable research includes studies on the financing of health care systems in Latin America, strategies to address educational disparities in collaboration with state governments in Mexico, and methodologies to help various countries reduce carbon emissions without compromising their economic growth. 

For the dean, participating in implementation also strengthens academic work and enriches students’ education. 

“When you tell someone, ‘You’re going to have to implement what you’re researching,’ their mindset automatically shifts… That creates a sense of alignment with reality for the teacher and a learning experience that we then bring into our classrooms”. 

The School of Government’s ranking on RePEc also reflects the evolution of its academic community. Among the researchers ranked among the top in the country are Ernesto Stein, Miguel Ángel Santos, Héctor Villarreal, and Sandra Aguilar Gómez. 

When considering only publications from the last ten years, the school has expanded its presence in that group with 19 researchers, including José Ramón Morales Arilla, Adán Silverio, and David Contreras. 

More than just a goal, the dean views the ranking as the result of a strategy to build a scientific community that influences public policy and as an incentive to continue strengthening it. 

“The school’s mission is closely aligned with that of the Tec: to be the leading institution in creating public value as a school of public policy in the Spanish-speaking world.  

“To that end, we’re going to keep hiring, we’re going to keep improving, and I’m sure we’ll have even better rankings in the future”, says Santos.