Maghfira Ramadhani (Afi)

Welcome to my website! I am a PhD student at Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Economics.

I am an energy and environmental economist interested in examining the broad impact of climate change and energy transition using tools from applied microeconomics and industrial organizations.

My current projects demonstrate how technology can address environmental challenges: I examine (i) how smart thermostat automation improves energy conservation during grid emergencies, and (ii) how individuals adjust their behavior to avoid pollution using physical activity data from wearable devices. In my ongoing work, I study the impact of battery storage deployment on renewable and conventional generators, specifically in Texas electricity markets.

CV (Updated July 2025)

Google Scholar
GitHub

Contact

Email: maghfira.ramadhani@gatech.edu
Office Hours: Sign up here: Book a time with me

Working Papers

Digital Dispatch and Demand Response in Grid Emergencies: Evidence from Household Cooling in California's Flex Alerts

(with Soren Anderson, Dylan Brewer)

Email for draft

Scheduled for presentation at IAEE@ASSA 2026, AERE@SEA 2025. Presented at AERE Summer Conference 2025, AERE@MEA 2025, CRIDC@Georgia Tech 2025, EMEE 2025, CU Environmental and Resource Economics Workshop 2024​, SWEEEP@Georgia Tech 2024

Abstract (click to expand): We study the interaction between moral suasion and automation in managing resource scarcity. Using data from smart thermostats during a California heatwave, we exploit a natural experiment involving voluntary conservation requests (Flex Alerts) and a statewide emergency phone alert. We document three findings. First, standard moral suasion suffers from rapid habituation. Second, high-salience signals (emergency alerts) reverse this habituation. Third, and most importantly, we identify a novel complementarity between salience and automation. High-salience alerts reduce the rate at which users override automated thermostat adjustments, tripling the efficacy of demand response technology. These results suggest that 'human frictions' limit the scalability of smart technologies, but crisis salience can mitigate these frictions.

Poster (Presented and Received Award at CRIDC@Georgia Tech 2025)

Publications

Managing Zero-Marginal-Cost, Intermittent Renewable Energy: A Survey of the Engineering, Economic, and Policy Challenges

(with Daniel Matisoff, Matthew Oliver, Santiago Grijalva, Oliver Chapman, and Amanda West)

Forthcoming at Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Abstract (click to expand): The integration of renewable generation such as solar and wind is crucial to achieving decarbonization objectives. This paper provides a survey of engineering, economics, and policy challenges associated with this integration, focusing primarily on the dual problems of zero-marginal-cost generation and intermittency. From the engineering perspective, we describe challenges in the operation and planning stages of electric power systems faced with increasing renewable penetration. We review the economic challenges for restructured electricity markets and highlight important implications for energy policies designed to promote growth and spur innovation in the renewable energy sector. We argue that the engineering, economic, and policy aspects of managing zero-marginal-cost, intermittent renewable energy cannot be decoupled—these challenges are inexorably linked. Hence, we describe how these three fields must work together to understand the key interactions that will make the transition to a low-carbon energy landscape a success.

National oil companies and fossil fuel subsidy regimes in transition: The case of Indonesia

(with Muchammad Ichsan and Matthew Lockwood)

The Extractive Industries and Society (2022)

Abstract (click to expand): It has long been recognised that national oil companies (NOCs) offer the means for funding and delivering fuel subsidies as a politically valuable good. But what happens when the oil begins to run out? Fiscal pressures will clearly increase, but there is also evidence that net importers with NOCs are still more likely to have subsidies than those without. A key question about countries moving through this transition is therefore whether and how the role of NOCs in the subsidy regime changes as the classic logic erodes. We examine these issues in a detailed case study of Indonesia, which became a net oil importer in the early 2000s. A series of partial reforms of FFS has followed, but subsidies remain and the NOC still plays a central role in their delivery. We find that certain functions of the NOC, such as obfuscating the fiscal cost of subsidies, have eroded. But increasing fiscal pressure has not so far overcome the political lock-in of subsidies and institutional inertia in the role of the NOC. Fundamental reform remains unlikely in the short term, but separating the upstream and downstream businesses of the NOC and changing its governance could help support that reform.

Work in Progress

Pollution, Avoidance Behavior, and Health

(with Bobby Harris)

Scheduled for presentation at AERE@SEA 2025. Presented at ASHEcon 2025, Atlanta Economics PhD Student Symposium 2025, AERE Summer Conference 2025

Battery Storage and Competition in Electricity Markets

Academic Presentations

2026: IAEE@ASSA (Philadelphia, PA)

2025: AERE@SEA (Tampa, FL), Atlanta Economics PhD Student Symposium (Atlanta, GA), AERE Summer Conference (Albuquerque, NM), Georgia Tech CRIDC (Atlanta, GA), Empirical Methods in Energy Economics Workshop (Washington, DC)

2024: Southeastern Workshop on Energy & Environmental Economics & Policy (Atlanta, GA), CU Environmental and Resource Economics Workshop (Vail, CO), Georgia Tech EPICenter (Atlanta, GA)

2022: South East Asia Energy Transition Partnership - Roundtables Executive Training, Australian National University (Virtual)

Teaching

Teaching is a transformative part of my academic journey. Inspired by the mentors and teachers who shaped my path, I am committed to guiding students from being passive recipients of theory to becoming active, analytical problem-solvers. I strive to create a classroom environment where students not only master economic tools but also build the confidence to apply them to real-world challenges.

Teaching Experience

• Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Instructor of Record: ECON2250 Statistics for Economists (Fall 2025) Course Website
  • Head TA: ECON7023 PhD Econometrics II (Spring 2026), ECON7103 PhD Environmental Economics (Spring 2025), ECON4440/6380 Environmental Economics (Spring 2025,2026, Summer 2023,2024), ECON4351 International Economics (Spring 2023), ECON4170 Math for Economists (Spring 2023,2024), ECON3110 Advanced Microeconomics (Fall 2023), ECON3300 Energy Economics (Fall 2023), ECON3161 Econometric Analysis (Fall 2022), ECON2250 Statistics for Economists (Fall 2024)
• Institute of Technology Bandung
  • Instructor: TM6051 Energy Policy (2017-2022), TM4021 Energy Economics (2017-2022), TM4025 Optimization & Operations Research in Oil and Gas (2017)

Miscellaneous

Website: This website is adapted from Gautam Rao’s website, which is publicly available on his Github.