Planning federal public investment in Mexico using multiobjective decision making

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