Gustavo Flores-Macías’ research and teaching focus on two main areas of political and economic development: 1) the politics of economic reforms, especially taxation, and 2) crime and policing, with an emphasis on the militarization of public safety.

His most recent book, Contemporary State Building: Elite Taxation and Public Safety in Latin America, studies how institutionally weak governments can get the wealthy to shoulder a greater tax burden.  In addition to serving as Cornell’s Associate Vice Provost for International Affairs, he is the editor of The Political Economy of Taxation in Latin America and the author of After Neoliberalism? The Left and Economic Reforms in Latin America, which won the Latin American Studies Association Tomassini Award in 2014.

Professor Flores-Macías’ teaching has been recognized with Harvard’s Derek Bok Distinction in Teaching Award and Cornell’s Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award.  He is also a recipient of Princeton University’s Democracy and Development Fellowship. His op-eds have been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, The Hill, CNBC, Fox News, Fortune, among others.

Professor Flores-Macías received his master’s in public policy from Duke where he was a Fulbright scholar and his Ph.D. from Georgetown. Previously, he served as Director of Public Affairs in Mexico’s Consumer Protection Agency and as Director of Cornell’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program.