Faculty from the University of New Mexico Department of Economics and the Department of Community and Regional Planning presented six different research projects focused on issues impacting New Mexico during the third-annual New Mexico Economic Research Day earlier this month.
All of the projects received funding from the New Mexico State Legislature through the Research in Public Service Projects funding and a 2024 junior fiscal appropriation bill. The projects each aimed to investigate an economic or policy-related topic impacting the state. The annual presentation day gives researchers an opportunity to report results back to the legislators who fund the work, state officials and other community stakeholders.
"Every one of these projects included both graduate and undergraduate students and that is really remarkable and illustrates that research is education," said Vice President for Research Ellen Fischer. "Each of these projects highlights really well that there are a lot of complexities to the challenges that we are facing within the state of New Mexico, especially given our rich, multicultural heritage, and our vast, open rural spaces."
Projects touched on a variety of issues impacting the state and researchers from the Department of Economics encouraged those interested in the presentations to review the publications associated with the work.
How Does Food Insecurity Relate to Food Purchase Behaviors in New Mexico
Associate Professor Sarah Stith and Assistant Professor Xiaxue Li, along with Swarup Paudel, a graduate research assistant, and Lawrence Rybarcyk, an undergraduate research assistant, worked to explore whether access to healthy food impacted buying decisions. The researchers looked at the USDA Food Access Research Atlas and data on food purchased to explore how income, proximity to grocery stores, and rural vs. urban communities impacts the food choices people make in New Mexico. The team reported results related to food diversity scores and rates of fruits and vegetables purchased. Data revealed people living in rural areas appear to purchase the fewest fruits and vegetables and that income level seems to have little impact on food choices. Further research is needed to explore the reasons why rural populations seem to purchase fewer fruits and vegetables. The project aimed to help assess if current policies focused on increasing access to healthy food are effective at helping people make healthier decisions.
Equity in Solar PV Adoption in New Mexico
Assistant Professor Yuting Yang presented on research she conducted alongside graduate student Jiaqing Zhao and undergraduate research assistants examining how New Mexico's Solar Tax Credit has impacted equity of the adoption of Solar PV technology. The project will help state officials understand how policies could help the state reach its goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050. The research team was able to explore data on 98% of New Mexico households with installed solar panels totaling about 53,043 residential solar systems. Results showed that New Mexico has racial equity in solar installation, which is a problem in other states. Data also revealed that lower-income households are less likely to install solar than higher-income households. Researchers found that of the households that had installed solar, higher-income groups had claimed the tax credit at higher rates than lower-income groups who installed solar. While there is little racial disparity in household adoptions of solar in the state, there was spatial disparity and households in urban centers were more likely to install solar than households in more rural parts of the state.
Pluriversal Economic Systems and the "Obligation to Incorporate": A Loss Valuation Review
Associate Professor Manuel Montoya presented a "protopaper" designed to examine the challenges the community of Mora faces in receiving compensation for the damage caused by the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon fire caused by the U.S. Forest Service. The research team includes Montoya, Research Assistants Augustus Guikema and Cole Kochan and Graduate Assistant Constanza Mier y Teran Ruesga. Mora faces unique challenges in accessing aid because it is an unincorporated community and does not have the same traditional structure FEMA has historically worked through. Montoya's work examines the challenges Mora faces as a "pluriversal economy" and the obligation to incorporate into the traditional economic system. To conduct the work, which has transformed into four separate papers, Montoya and his team examined more than 120 articles from a variety of disciplines, attended community-based dialogues and created hypothetical case studies of how non-traditional livelihoods would be impacted by the fire damages. His work is still in-progress.
