Dr Miguel Ruiz

Dr. Miguel Ruiz has been a Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research since 2022. He specializes in the use of data and econometric analysis to answer questions of academic and public policy interest. His policy research focuses on fields that tackle disadvantage in Australia, including social housing and criminal justice. Dr. Ruiz is also the chief investigator in a partnership between the University of Melbourne and the World Bank studying the expansion of compulsory education in Indonesia.

Dr. Ruiz’s academic research interests include the effect of policy on education outcomes, the impact of social housing on disadvantage, and the relationship between violent conflict and forced migration. In terms of methodology, Dr. Ruiz is interested in applied econometrics, geographic analysis, networks, and policy evaluation.

Prior to moving to Melbourne, Dr Ruiz obtained his PhD in Economics from CEMFI, with Professor Manuel Arellano and Professor Diego Puga as advisors. He has studied the impact of the Bilingual Education Program in Madrid on student outcomes in partnership with the local Department of Education. His academic research has also studied the impact of violent conflict on the displacement of people in the Middle East, and on future health outcomes in Africa. 

Dr. Ruiz has worked as an independent consultant for the World Bank since 2016 in the Global Practices (GP) of Education and Social, Urban, Rural & Resilience. Select projects within the Education GP include analyzing the economic and financial viability of new education projects in Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific. Most recently, he has been working on projects related to early childhood education in Indonesia.