Mexico is among the 15 largest economies in the world and the second largest economy in Latin America. The country has strong macroeconomic institutions, and it is open to trade. However, Mexico has underperformed in terms of growth, inclusion, and poverty reduction compared to similar countries worldwide. When looking at Mexico’s socioeconomic policies in the past decade, what can be said about why the country has not performed to its full potential? What are the main factors that impact poverty levels in the country, and what can policymakers do about the growing rates of poverty and inequality?
The Georgetown Americas Institute welcomed Gonzalo Hernandez, director of the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network; Nora Lustig, Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Economics and the founding director of the Commitment to Equity Institute (CEQ) at Tulane University; and Santiago Levy, senior advisor at the United Nations Development Programme and a nonresident senior fellow with the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution, to a conversation to discuss these issues. The meeting took place over Zoom and was moderated by Alejandro Werner, director of the Georgetown Americas Institute.
This conversation took place in English and Spanish with interpretation services available.
Read the event summary here.
Featuring
Gonzalo Hernandez is the director of the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN-OPHI), where he coordinates 61 countries and 19 international institutions to advance and exchange ideas about implementing multidimensional poverty indicators. He is also an expert for country-led evaluations working for UNICEF. He was the executive secretary of the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Policy (CONEVAL) between 2005 and 2019, where he coordinated measurement and evaluation of social policy's impact on poverty at the national, state, and municipality level in Mexico. Gonzalo was part of the 15 Independent Group of Scientists who wrote the 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report for the United Nations. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Oxford University, M.A. in economics from the University of Essex, and a B.A. from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).
Santiago Levy is a senior advisor at the United Nations Development Programme and a nonresident senior fellow with the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. He was previously president of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association. From 2008 to 2018 he was the vice president for sectors and knowledge at the Inter-American Development Bank. From 1994 to 2000, Levy served the Mexican government as deputy minister of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Boston University.
Nora Lustig is Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Economics and the founding director of the Commitment to Equity Institute (CEQ) at Tulane University. She is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Center for Global Development, and Inter-American Dialogue. Lustig’s research is on economic development, inequality, and social policies with emphasis on Latin America. She is a founding member and president emeritus of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) and was a co-director of the World Bank’s “World Development Report 2000, Attacking Poverty.” She received her doctorate in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Alejandro Werner (moderator) is the founding director of the Georgetown Americas Institute and a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. He recently completed almost nine years as director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund. Prior to that appointment, he was undersecretary of finance and public credit in Mexico’s Finance Ministry and held several positions in that ministry and the Central Bank. He also taught at leading universities in Mexico, Spain, and the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in economics from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).