Planning federal public investment in Mexico using multiobjective decision making

The scope of this article is showing how multicriteria decision making can be an efficient tool to manage public investment planning in complex situations. For this aim, we will analyse the problem in all its aspects: building the model from data using econometrical tools, solving the resulting highly complex model using modern efficient techniques (multiobjective meta-heuristics) and helping the decision maker to introduce his preferences in order to achieve the most preferred solution. This holistic approach let us provide an efficient solution to a complex public investment planning situation, improving the current state of the country relating not only economical aspects, but also social and human development aspects. The real situation studied is focused on Mexico, where, in recent decades, has undergone remarkable improvements in terms of economic growth, which has not been matched by significant improvements in several other basic aspects of human development, nor by reductions in regional inequalities. This suggests the need to establish policies aimed at improving these aspects and reducing inequalities. Federal public investment is an important tool in regional policy to promote and improve these aspects; so we introduce a multiobjective programming problem for planning federal public investment in Mexico. This model will focus on improving national levels in four main dimensions of human development (economic growth, education, health and housing), and on reducing regional inequalities for those dimensions.