Luis Francisco Gómez López is an economics professor at Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Cajicá, Colombia. Luis has been a long-term supporter of CORE, and in particular our Spanish translation efforts. Luis kindly took some time out of his schedule to chat with us about his background, his institution and CORE.
Hi Luis, thank you for joining us. Let’s start by talking a little about your academic background.
I have a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in economics from Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). Nowadays, I am a professor and the coordinator of the economic area at Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, in the Distance Learning Faculty, within the Business Administration academic program. Universidad Militar Nueva Granada is a public Colombian university with three branches, with the main campus located in Bogotá. The Distance Learning Faculty offers various undergraduate degrees (including Business Administration).
How did you discover CORE?
Through the Faculty of Economics at Universidad de los Andes and as a result of a benchmarking exercise. As a coordinator of the economics area, I found that BI Norwegian Business School used it in the Bachelor of Business Administration program, in the course Economics I, as the main teaching material.
I understand Universidad Militar Nueva Granada has adopted CORE as the principal material.
Yes, we initially adopted the Spanish translation of The Economy 1.0 in the academic program for microeconomics, as part of an academic reform to renew the program’s operating licence granted by the Ministry of Education in Colombia in the first semester of 2025.
How was this experience? What attracted you to CORE?
First, CORE is a community with an open-access philosophy that provides online e-books and brings the latest research in economics to undergraduate students.
Second, it emphasises the use of data and the connection of data to theoretical models in order to understand real-world problems.
Third, CORE takes into account the interests of students. I particularly value the exercise that asks students to identify the most pressing problems of our time, then generates a word cloud that can be shared with the CORE community.
Take a look at the results of our 2024-2025 word cloud exercise here.
How does CORE’s approach compare to that of other economics textbooks?
Compared to other economics textbooks, I believe future textbooks should not rely on just one, two, or three authors. Instead, like CORE, they should be developed by a team of authors, since it is difficult for a single person to master every area of economics at the frontier of knowledge.
You have praised the Spanish translation of The Economy 2.0: Microeconomics online. What do you think of CORE’s Spanish translations?
It is an excellent translation, thanks to the work of the translators Dulcinea Otero-Piñeiro and José María Izquierdo Tapia. They acknowledge the challenges of translating for a Hispanic audience. For example, in Chapter 10 the expression “and other remedies are needed” is particularly difficult, since in Colombia the word “remedios” sounds odd in this context. Nevertheless, overall it is an excellent translation because it aims to reach a broader audience beyond Colombia.
Why are local translations important in Economics teaching?
I will illustrate the importance of this aspect with data from the case of Colombia. In Figure 1, the relationship between bilingualism and educational establishments (preschool, elementary, middle, and high school) in Colombia is shown. The label “Oficial” refers to educational establishments whose main revenue comes from government resources, while “No Oficial” refers to those that do not. As can be seen, the majority of educational establishments are not fully bilingual. Therefore, anyone who wishes to enter higher education must learn another language, since our society does not provide these skills in the early years. Yet achieving a solid level of proficiency in another language during the first semesters of an undergraduate program is challenging, given that students are simultaneously learning subjects directly related to their main field of study.
Figure 1: Bilingualism and educational establishments (preschool, elementary, middle and high school) in Colombia
Thank you for your time, Luis.
For further reading see La economía 2.0: microeconomía. Follow Luis on X.
