Carolina Agurto
Partner and Executive Director of Economic Development
Fundación IDEA
Carolina Agurto is the executive director of Fundación IDEA, one of the first and main think tanks on public policy in Mexico. Throughout her career, Ms. Agurto has collaborated with organizations such as the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of State, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Organization of American States (OAS), and the United Nations (UN) on projects related to economic development, trade, regulatory policy, competition, intellectual property, and governance. She has direct experience in international trade policy, having participated in negotiations of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Pacific Alliance.
Carolina holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and an Master of Public Policy from The University of Chicago, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, a grant recipient of the JJ/World Bank, and a Dean’s Scholar. In 2021, she was selected for the W50 Program at the London School of Economics for executive women in leadership positions. In 2015, Carolina was a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a summer fellow of The University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.
Recent Publications
Why the USMCA Matters for North America’s Economic Future
The USMCA is the operating system for North American production, investment, talent, and digital commerce. Canada, Mexico, and the United States should renew the agreement and explore ways to update it to preserve certainty, deepen regional supply chains and innovation capabilities, and strengthen the continent’s ability to compete with China.
Latin American Subnational Innovation Competitiveness Index 2.0
This report ranks more than 200 regions across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and the United States on 13 commonly available indicators of innovation competitiveness, and offers policymakers a guide to bolstering regional and national innovation capacity.
Latin American Subnational Innovation Competitiveness Index
For policymakers to bolster the global competitiveness of their nations and regions, they first must know where they stand. This report benchmarks the 182 regions of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and the United States using 13 commonly available indicators of strength in the knowledge economy, in globalization, and in innovation capacity.
Recent Events and Presentations
The Future of North American Trade and Competitiveness: The Six-Year Review of USMCA/CUSMA/T-MEC
Join ITIF for a panel discussion featuring experts from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Canada and Fundación IDEA in Mexico, who will review a new report on the importance of North America’s trade agreement for all three economies and discuss the priorities Canada and Mexico bring to the review process, opportunities to deepen production and technology cooperation, and how the agreement can be updated to support regional competitiveness in the decade ahead.
Assessing the Competitiveness of North America’s States: The North American Subnational Innovation Competitiveness Index
Watch this virtual event that accompanied the release of a report ranking North American states and provinces on 13 indicators of competitiveness in the increasingly innovation-driven global economy.
2021 Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance Annual Summit
The GTIPA’s annual summits bring together alliance members with world-leading experts to explore creative solutions to the difficult economic, trade, and innovation challenges facing the international community.
