Viridiana Rios

I belong to an emerging generation of academics that rejects the commonly accepted idea that academia is inexorably detached from policy decisions and social mobilization. Instead, I rely on data analysis, research journalism, and close collaboration with academic peers to advance an acute understanding of the pressing social problems of Mexico, my home country, and to encourage and publicize inadvertent solutions to them.

I am a Visiting Assistant Professor at Purdue University, and an instructor of public policy at Harvard Summer School. I use statistical learning techniques to show how some government structures/policies work, and how we can make them work better. My topics are corruption, violence and economic development. Exploring them, I have published several peer-review papers at top-journals in political science and data analysis, and an edited book entitled #TheMissingReform.