Cole Kochan
Economics and Mathematics & Statistics
Mentor: Manuel Montoya, Ph.D.
Project: Parallel Economic Systems and the “Obligation to Incorporate”: A Loss Valuation Review
About Cole Kochan
I'm honored to be working as a research assistant to Professor Manuel Montoya, whose project – Parallel Economic Systems and the “Obligation to Incorporate”: A Loss Valuation Review – aims to study New Mexico's diverse economic systems through the prism of the recent Calf Canyon Hermits Peak (CCHP) Fire. This project will focus on how communities with economies historically understood to be “informal” or mutual aid driven can navigate the legal and bureaucratic processes necessary to seek formal compensation for losses suffered in the course of anthropogenic disasters. Specifically, we will undertake a loss valuation which will attempt a holistic assessment of the impact of the recent CCHP Fire on communities in the San Miguel and Mora counties of northern New Mexico and aim to develop an approach to evaluating losses in such cases that goes beyond the myopic and narrowly constrained compensation structures of FEMA and USDA.
