Environmental & Health Economics

Suraj
Ghimire

Ph.D., Economics — University of New Mexico
Assistant Teaching Professor
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

Studying what markets fail to price, and what that costs the communities that live with it.

About

I am an economist working at the intersection of environmental health, agricultural externalities, and energy policy. My research quantifies the social costs of air pollution from dairy farming operations, examines the welfare consequences of ozone exposure below federal regulatory thresholds, and evaluates the financial viability of biogas energy systems.

My teaching spans principles of macroeconomics and microeconomics, natural resource and environmental economics, energy markets, and graduate-level statistics and data analytics. I hold a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of New Mexico (2023).

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Research

Forthcoming

Forthcoming — Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics

The Health and Economic Impacts of Dairy Air Pollution: Evidence from New Mexico

Suraj Ghimire, Andrew Goodkind, Jingjing Wang

Estimates county-level morbidity and mortality damages from dairy concentrated animal feeding operation emissions in New Mexico, combining atmospheric dispersion modeling with dose-response functions from the epidemiological literature. Finds that the social costs of dairy air pollution are substantial relative to the economic value the sector generates.

Under Review

Revise & Resubmit — Applied Economics Letters

Beyond the Threshold: The Hidden Economic Costs of Safe Ozone Pollution

Suraj Ghimire, Andrew Goodkind, Benjamin Jones

Estimates the welfare costs attributable to ozone exposure at concentrations below the current National Ambient Air Quality Standard, contributing to the policy debate over whether existing standards adequately protect public health. Examines how functional form assumptions in the dose-response relationship affect damage estimates.

Published

Energies, 18(23), 6286 — 2025

The Tipping Point: Economic Viability and Resilience of Dairy Manure Bioenergy Under Market and Policy Shocks

Suraj Ghimire, Jingjing Wang

Develops a Financial Resilience Index framework to evaluate combined heat and power versus renewable natural gas systems across a range of dairy farm sizes. Uses Monte Carlo simulation to characterize viability under variability in energy prices, carbon credit markets, and capital costs. Finds that policy instruments calibrated to average conditions may fail the farms that most need support.

Working Papers

Working Paper

Distributional Impacts of Exposure to CAFOs: A Case Study of Large Dairies in New Mexico

Suraj Ghimire, Jingjing Wang

Examines whether income and racial disparities exist in the distribution of dairy air pollution damages across New Mexico communities, contributing to the environmental justice literature on agricultural externalities.

Working Paper

Aligning Private Incentives and Public Health: A Social Cost-Benefit Analysis of Dairy Anaerobic Digesters

Suraj Ghimire, Jingjing Wang

Asks whether the public benefits of anaerobic digester adoption, including reduced methane emissions and improved local air quality, are sufficient to justify public subsidy of systems that are privately marginal.

Grants

NSF Award 2520791 — Co-Principal Investigator, 2025–present

Harnessing AI for Spatial Environmental Risk Modeling and Mitigation

Total Award: $250,000

Applies machine learning and satellite imagery to detect and characterize environmental hazards associated with agricultural operations at spatial resolutions that conventional monitoring networks cannot achieve.

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Teaching

Undergraduate

Principles of Microeconomics

Undergraduate

Principles of Macroeconomics

Undergraduate

Natural Resource & Environmental Economics

Undergraduate

Fundamentals of Accounting I & II

Graduate

Engineering Statistics

Graduate

Engineering Data Analytics

Graduate

Energy Markets

Undergraduate

Introduction to Entrepreneurship

4.56 Avg. Accessibility
5.00 Peak Course Rating
10 Courses Evaluated
80% Avg. Response Rate
🏛️

Interactive Teaching Resource — Principles of Macroeconomics

Chair the Fed: Monetary Policy Simulation

Students take the role of Federal Reserve Chair and set interest rates each quarter to manage inflation and unemployment across a simulated economy. Used as an assessed activity for the Phillips Curve unit, the game makes the short-run tradeoff tangible before students put numbers on paper.

Play the Simulation →
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Background

Education

Ph.D., Economics — 2023 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Dissertation: Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, Environmental Quality and Public Health
M.A., Economics — 2019 University of New Mexico
M.B.A., General Management — 2017 Southeast Missouri State University

Methods & Tools

R, Python, Stata, SQL — QGIS — LaTeX — Tableau / Power BI — Atmospheric dispersion modeling (InMAP) — Monte Carlo simulation

Academic Positions

Assistant Teaching Professor — 2022–present Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Instructor — Spring 2022 Dept. of Economics, University of New Mexico

Selected Honors

Regional Finalist (Mentor), Energy Tech University Prize, U.S. Dept. of Energy — 2025
Graduate Research Fellowship, Center for Regional Studies, UNM — 2021–22
Social Justice Scholarship, Northeast Agricultural and Resource Economics Association — 2022
Berkeley/Sloan Summer School Diversity Fellowship, UC Berkeley — 2021
Download Full CV
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Contact

I welcome inquiries from students, collaborators, and search committees.