3rd annual NM Economics Research Day examines state policies and economic opportunities

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.

Valuing Urban Greening using Hedonic Pricing: Middle Rio Grande Valley in the Greater Albuquerque Area

Regents Professor Robert Berrens presented work by himself, Samuel Asare, Ph.D. student, Brennan Davis, graduate of the Master of Community and Regional Planning Program, Sean Yonemoto, undergraduate Economics student and Writer-in-Residence John Fleck. They are working on a white paper and housing/real estate study on the value of urban green spaces. Berrens has spent his career examining climate change and most recently how society works to collectively respond to challenges. Specifically, he has sought answers to questions around rights and welfare: What do small water authorities do in a hotter world with less water? How do people use and value water themselves? To establish the valuation, they looked at real estate values, tax funds, remote sensing data and more. Their research question for the white paper centered on how heat and its cooling correlates get capitalized into the Albuquerque-area housing market. The team found that a green area's cooling effects mattered more than distance to a park or green space. Berrens encouraged those interested in the work to review the white paper for more information.

Hetorogenity in Price Elasticities of Urban Water Demand: The case for ABQ, NM

Associate Professor Jingjing Wang presented her research on how price increases might impact water demand in Albuquerque. Water authorities must understand how price impacts demand to ensure they remain profitable and have equitable impact. Ideally, water authorities should conduct price elasticity studies every three to five years, but the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA) had not done one since the 1990s. To conduct the study on behalf of ABCWUA, researchers used account-level data from ABCWUA, NOAA weather variables, U.S. Census data and more. They found that wealthier zip codes in the city tend to use more water and that the top five water usage groups are single family, multi-family, commercial, city and institutional. The five sectors make up more than 97% of water usage. During the Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns, water use went up at single-family homes and decreased at city properties. Researchers found the price of water is inelastic for all sectors, meaning usage decreases very little when prices change. People were more likely to respond to price changes in the winter than during irrigation season. People living in non-white majority zip codes respond more to price changes than primarily white zip codes. Researchers recommended sector-specific approaches to water management.

The Economic Growth and Development of the Westside of ABQ

Moises Gonzales, associate professor in the School of Architecture and Planning and chair of the Community and Regional Planning Program, presented research on the impacts of Westside expansion. The study found that in 50 years the Westside will still be the primary growth area of the city. The report details the events that have allowed the Westside to expand and primarily examined the area North of I-40 and West of the Rio Grande River. Researchers thoroughly analyzed the existing long-term planning documents for the area including city and county comprehensive plans and water authority plans. Westside growth is expected to impact water demand. Other takeaways from the plan include that transportation will become an even larger challenge as there are currently twice as many people commuting East across the river as there are those commuting West. The plan recommends working to expand economic development on the Westside to promote job growth in that part of the city.

Learn more about the projects on the Department of Economics website.