Cora Jane Flood Professor of Business Administration
Economic Analysis & Policy | Energy Institute | Sustainability
Leading expert on energy and environmental economics
About
Catherine Wolfram is the Cora Jane Flood Professor of Business Administration at the Haas School of Business. Beginning in March 2021, she is on leave from UC Berkeley to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate & Energy Economics in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Prior to her leave, she served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Chair of the Faculty. She was also the Program Director of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Environment and Energy Economics Program, and an affiliated faculty member in the Agriculture and Resource Economics department and the Energy and Resources Group at Berkeley.
Wolfram has published extensively on the economics of energy markets. Her work has analyzed rural electrification programs in the developing world, energy efficiency programs in the US, the effects of environmental regulation on energy markets and the impact of privatization and restructuring in the US and UK. She is currently implementing several randomized controlled trials to evaluate energy programs in the U.S., Ghana, and Kenya.
She received a PhD in Economics from MIT in 1996 and an AB from Harvard in 1989. Before joining the faculty at UC Berkeley, she was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Harvard.
Expertise and Research Interests
- Energy Policy and Climate Change
- Energy In The Developing World
- Environmental Regulation
- New Data Collection Techniques
- Kenneth Lee, Edward Miguel, Catherine Wolfram. Does Household Electrification Supercharge Economic Development?. Journal of Economic Perspectives.
Winter 2020 - Kenneth Lee, Edward Miguel, Catherine Wolfram. Experimental Evidence on the Economics of Rural Electrification. Journal of Political Economy.
March 2020 - Catherine Wolfram, Meredith Fowlie, and Michael Greenstone. Do Energy Efficiency Investments Deliver? Evidence from the Weatherization Assistance Program. Quarterly Journal of Economics.
2018 - Catherine Wolfram, Paul Gertler, Orie Shelef and Alan Fuchs. The Demand for Energy-Using Assets among the World’s Rising Middle Classes. American Economic Review.
2016
At Haas since 2000
March 2021 – present, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate & Energy Economics, U.S. Department of the Treasury
July 2019 – March 2021, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Chair of the Faculty
2018 – 2019, Acting Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
2016 – present, Program Director, National Bureau of Economic Research’s Environment and Energy Economics Program
2013 – present, Cora Jane Flood Professor of Business Administration, Haas School of Business
2013 – present, Faculty Director, The E2e Project
2009 – 2018, Faculty Director, Energy Institute at Haas
2005 – 2013, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Haas School of Business
2000 – 2005, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Haas School of Business
1996 – 2000, Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard University
- Faculty Scientist, Energy Technologies Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research
- Board of Editors, The Energy Journal
Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, Evening MBA Program
2008
Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Fellow
Fellow
Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching, Evening & Weekend MBA Program
2006
E2e Evidence-Based Policy Fellowships
Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Co-Principal Investigator (with Michael Greenstone and Chris Knittel)
2018-2021
The Political Economy of Rural Electrification
Funded by the Department for International Development
Co-Principal Investigator (with Ted Miguel)
2018-2021
A Pilot Study of Novel Low-Cost Technologies for Measuring Electricity Reliability in Urban Ghana
Funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation
Co-Principal Investigator (with Prabal Dutta and Jay Taneja)
2017-2018
- A New Approach to Lending in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, National Bureau of Economic Research, 06/03/2021
- Treasury Expects to Borrow $1.3 Trillion Over Second Half of Fiscal 2021, The Wall Street Journal, 05/07/2021
- Biden plan would pump billions into home retrofits, E&E News, 04/09/2021
- UC Berkeley professor Catherine Wolfram appointed to serve at US Treasury, The Daily Californian, 03/08/2021
- To Lead Climate Initiatives at Treasury, Biden Turns to Another UC Berkeley Academic, KQED, 03/04/2021
- U.S. Treasury names climate economist, tax partner to senior posts, Reuters, 03/02/2021
- Following up on how much EVs are really driven, Axios Generate, 02/18/2021
- People Are Driving Electric Vehicles Less Than Projected, UC Davis News, 02/08/2021
- Berkeley scholars: Here’s what Biden should accomplish right away, Berkeley News, 01/22/2021
- Utilities can help their central banks, “loaning” electricity during the slump, Energy Post, 04/03/2020
- Predicting global air conditioning demand, by nation, Energy Post, 12/12/2019
- Eight countries could outstrip the US for air conditioning, Cooling Post, 12/09/2019
- October’s Power Shutoffs Prompt Interest in Getting off the Grid, KQED Forum, 11/01/2019
- Massive power shut-off would cost businesses in California, Marketplace, 10/08/2019
- Why extreme climate scenarios no longer seem so unlikely, PBS News Hour, 09/19/2019
- Design and Evaluation of Development Technology, MBA292T-2
- Design, Evaluate and Scale Development Technologies, EWMBA292T-2
- Managerial Economics, XMBA201A-1
