The Economic Impact of the University of New Mexico on the State of New Mexico (February 2011)

This study focuses on the economic impacts resulting from UNM spending and employment. The computed impacts show how the dollars that flow to UNM from outside of New Mexico (out-of-state) sources support direct spending on salaries, benefits, and goods and services. The impacts also show how spending creates additional, derivative, economic activity in the state of New Mexico.1 For instance, UNM’s expenditures on goods and services create indirect effects as the firms supplying UNM purchase supplies from other firms and employ people to produce their products. Part of salaries of UNM employees and UNM vendors are then spent in the community, creating induced effects, causing further demand for goods and services and resulting in more jobs and additional income. The indirect and induced effects, combined with the direct contribution of UNM funded by out-of-state sources, result in the total economic impact of the University of New Mexico on the state of New Mexico. However, it is important to note that this is not the maximum impact from UNM. Impacts of other factors such as encouraging technology development and contributing to an educated workforce are likely to be substantial even if they are less easily quantified.