About

Susanna B. Berkouwer is an Assistant Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Her research spans environmental economics and development economics, with projects studying energy efficiency adoption, carbon offsets, electricity grids, and air pollution from energy usage. She is a Faculty Research Fellow with the National Bureau of Economic Research, an affiliate with J-PAL and BREAD, and serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Development Economics. At Penn, she is affiliated with Wharton's Climate Center, Analytics at Wharton, the Penn Environmental Innovations Initiative, and the Penn Development Research Initiative. She co-organizes the Development Economics seminar, the Energy Economics and Finance seminar, and the Applied Economics Workshop. Berkouwer holds a PhD from UC Berkeley and an MA from Yale University, and teaches microeconomics in the Wharton MBA program.

Research topics

• Economics
• Business
• Political Science
• Public economics
• Microeconomics
• Engineering
• Monetary economics
• Natural resource economics
• Marketing
• Finance
• Law
• Agricultural economics

Selected publications

• Cooking, Health, and Daily Exposure to Pollution Spikes

  American Economic Journal Economic Policy · 2026-04-29

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Many routine daily activities—such as cooking and commuting—cause large recurring pollution spikes that may impact health without significantly affecting average exposure. We study pollution spikes by combining experimental variation in cooking technology with high-frequency data on individual pollution exposure and time-use in Kenya. Improved cookstoves reduce PM2.5 spikes while cooking by 51.3 μg/m 3 (41 percent) and cause a 0.24 standard deviation reduction in self-reported respiratory symptoms. However, even after more than three years of daily use, we find no clinical health improvements, possibly because we detect no impact on average exposure. Clinical health improvements may require reductions in ambient concentrations. (JEL I12, O12, O13, Q51, Q53)

  PublisherDOI

• Induction stove adoption in Kenya

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-09-19

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Induction stove adoption in Kenya

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-09-19

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Induction stove adoption in Kenya

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-09-19

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Induction stove adoption in Kenya

  AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · 2025-09-19

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Cooking, health, and daily exposure to pollution spikes

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2023-09-01 · 3 citations

  reportOpen access1st author

  Extensive research has documented that elevated air pollution increases mortality and morbidity, with estimates reaching 8 million deaths per year.Many of the world's one billion urban poor face both high ambient concentrations and even higher transient peaks.Should government interventions aimed at improving health prioritize reductions in ambient pollution-for example, regulating industrial emissions-or peak pollution?We conduct a field experiment studying the impacts of reducing a notorious source of peak air pollution exposure-biomass cooking-for three years in an urban environment with high ambient pollution.We collect personal, highfrequency particulate matter and carbon monoxide measurements and extensive quantitative and self-reported health measurements.Cooking increases peak PM2.5 exposure by 125 μg/m³ for the control group, but improved stove ownership reduces this by 52 μg/m³-a sizeable 42% reduction in peak cooking emissions.However, ambient pollution of 37.5 μg/m³ largely negates any impact on average air pollution exposure.The reduction in peak cooking emissions generates a 0.24 standard deviation reduction in short-term self-reported respiratory symptoms.However, we can rule out meaningful improvements in blood pressure, blood oxygen, and a wide array of selfreported diagnoses.Ambient air pollution dampens the health benefits from private technology adoption, and a government seeking to generate chronic health improvements will likely need to address negative externalities through environmental regulation.Still, despite the importance of ambient pollution, the $40 stove generates $86 in annual energy savings and reduces CO₂ emissions at $4.9 per ton when factoring in additionality rates, suggesting government subsidies would generate large societal benefits.

  PublisherDOI

• Donor Contracting Conditions and Public Procurement: Causal Evidence from Kenyan Electrification

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023 · 3 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Business
  • Public economics
  PublisherDOI

• Private Actions in the Presence of Externalities: The Health Impacts of Reducing Air Pollution Peaks But Not Ambient Exposure

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Private Actions in the Presence of Externalities: The Health Impacts of Reducing Air Pollution Peaks But Not Ambient Exposure

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Money or Power? Choosing Covid-19 aid in Kenya

  Energy Economics · 2023-09-21 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Catherine Wolfram

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  20 shared

• Edward Miguel

  13 shared

• Joshua Dean

  University of Bristol

  11 shared

• Eric S. Hsu

  9 shared

• Pierre E. Biscaye

  5 shared

• Eric L. Hsu

  University of California, Berkeley

  3 shared

• Steven L. Puller

  Texas A&M University

  3 shared

• Kwame Abrokwah

  2 shared

Education

• PhD, Agricultural and Resource Economics

  University of California Berkeley

  2020