Vela-Treviño, Oscar Ernesto

Óscar E. Vela Treviño is Professor of Economics and Project Lead for the formation of the Center for Demographic Change and Economic Prosperity at the School of Social Sciences and Government of Tecnológico de Monterrey. His teaching and research focus on public finance, financial economics, and macroeconomics, with an agenda centered on economic prosperity, social security, and demographic change, and a particular interest in macroeconomic financial stability: the interactions between macroeconomic dynamics, financial markets, and the long-horizon sustainability of public finances and social security. Within this project, Dr. Vela will coordinate a research and analytical-projects agenda on demographic change, longevity, and ageing, and how it reshapes pension systems, savings, housing, and economic growth. His broader areas of expertise include social security public policy, the economics of longevity, investment and asset allocation, housing policy, and catastrophic risk management. Before joining Tecnológico de Monterrey, Dr. Vela built a career at the intersection of economic policy and finance. From 2018 to 2024 he served as Chief Financial Officer of INFONAVIT, Mexico's national housing fund, directing the financial strategy and long-term planning of a balance sheet equivalent to roughly 8% of Mexico's GDP. Earlier, at Mexico's Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP), he was Head of the Unit for Insurance, Pensions and Social Security (2013-2018), where he led the policy for the national retirement system and pension funds (AFORES), sat on the board of the National Insurance and Bonding Commission (CNSF), negotiated the financial-services chapters of the 2017-2018 NAFTA/USMCA rounds, and led the federal government's catastrophe-bond issuance. As General Adjunct Director of Public Debt (2011-2013) he prepared the federal government's Annual Debt Program and debt-sustainability analyses and chaired the International Financial Stability Working Group during Mexico's 2012 G20 Presidency. Dr. Vela also served as advisor to the Deputy Secretary of Finance (2009-2011), as an Emerging Markets Strategist at Barclays Capital in New York (2008-2009), and as an economist at Banco de México (1998-2002). He is currently Financial Strategy and Macroeconomic Advisor at Grupo Valore, where he designs corporate strategy, corporate governance, and investment strategy for insurance-sector consortia, and serves on the Credit Committee of Beel Credit and the Advisory Committee of Angel Ventures. He sees these activities as synergies between financial practice and academia that nourish his research and entrepreneurship agenda. He holds a Ph.D. (2008) and an M.A. (2004) in Economics from the University of Chicago —where he was a research assistant to professors Casey B. Mulligan, Atif Mian, and Chad Syverson— and a Licenciatura en Economía from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM, 2002). His undergraduate research earned both the National Research Prize of the Mexican Institute of Finance Executives (IMEF) and the EX-ITAM Research Prize. Selected publications • Vela, Óscar E. and Alberto Torres, “Trade integration and synchronization between the business cycles of Mexico and the United States”, The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, vol. 14, no. 3 (December 2003): 319-342. • Díaz de León, Alejandro, Rodolfo Gutiérrez and Óscar E. Vela, “La Sostenibilidad de la Deuda Pública en México” (The Sustainability of Public Debt in Mexico), Gaceta de Economía, ITAM (2012). • Vela, Óscar E., “Sobre el Resurgimiento de la Curva de Phillips y la Historia Inflacionaria en México”, Gaceta de Economía, ITAM (2004).