UNIVERSITY-GOVERNMENT COLLABORATION, POLICY OPTIMIZATION, AND SOCIAL METHODOLOGY

Abstract

Around the world, the importance of HEIs is increasing,
not only as a source of knowledge, but as a relevant social
actor with multiple instruments to transform the communities
where they are located. Business stimulus policies
are a space for natural interaction with academia. However,business stimulus programs remain small, despite
widespread need. In past decades, local governments had
debt problems, today there is capacity to finance more
programs, as evidenced by the growing budget allocated
to social programs in most of the states and municipalities
of Mexico. Therefore, an area of opportunity is identified
to combine the knowledge and proven research capacity
of HEIs with the commitment and resources of local governments,
in favor of the socioeconomic development of
the regions. In this review paper, the aim is to expose the
complementarity of the academy and the government for
an optimal design of public policies and impact evaluation,
particularly in the case of the promotion of micro and small
firms. To achieve a beneficial alliance between the academy,
the local government and the micro-entrepreneurs, a
dialogue between the parties is required, piloting small actions
to generate trust and measuring preliminary results,
in order to finally scale the programs.