Promoting ecopreneurship as a development strategy for the sustainable economic development of New Mexico

The purpose of this project is to assess the contribution of green factor in economic development and the need for an ecopreneurship development program in the state of New Mexico. An empirical study on green jobs in 50 states in the U.S. has suggested unreliable relationships between green factor and economic growth indicators. The green factors are likely positive in the models with regional fixed effects but negative in the models with state fixed effects. These results suggest that the green development, especially the promotion of clean energy jobs and clean energy economy, might have to be based on longer term goals. With the employment structure of New Mexico, the promotion of green jobs/ecopreneurs could be well served for the state's long term economic development goals if not the short term economic growth. The cooperative efforts of economic development organizations in building an ecopreneurship development program will be greatly contributed to the development of the state.