Hector Gutierrez Rufrancos

Dr Hector Gutierrez Rufrancos is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Stirling School of Management, where he serves as the Undergraduate Economics Programme Director, PhD Convenor, and Summer School Director for the Scottish Graduate Programme in Economics (SGPE). He is also a Research Fellow at the Global Labor Organization.

• Education:
  • PhD in Economics (2017), University of Sussex
  • MSc in Development Economics (2010), University of Sussex
  • BA in Economics with Development Studies (2009), University of Sussex

His research focuses on the interplay between policy, institutions, and individual well-being, particularly in the context of living standards, inequality, and informality. Key areas include:

• Living Standards & Well-being: Historical analysis of nutrition, poverty, and inequality (19th–20th centuries) in Britain, Europe, and the USA.
• Institutions & Political Economy: Studies on unions in Mexico, geopolitical risk spillovers, and informal economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
• Methodological Expertise: Applied econometric techniques such as causal inference, instrumental variables (IV), regression discontinuity design (RDD), and differences-in-differences (DiD).

His recent publications address topics like pollution’s effect on labor supply, informality’s impact on welfare, and historical inequality patterns. He emphasizes empirical rigor in both research and teaching, offering workshops in Stata programming, LaTeX, and causal inference methods.

Academic Service: Organized SGPE Summer Schools (2022–present), co-directed SGPE PhD programs (2022–2023), and coordinates MSc dissertations. He actively presents at conferences including the Scottish Economic Society, Royal Economic Association, and UNU-WIDER seminars.