Khanna, Shefali

Shefali Khanna is an LSE Newcleo Fellow in Energy Economics and Policy in the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics. In her previous role, she was a Research Associate in the Business School at Imperial College London. She earned a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University in 2021, where she was a Pre-Doctoral Fellow of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program and a PhD Student Affiliate of Evidence for Policy Design at the Center for International Development. Prior to her PhD, she was a Research Assistant at Resources for the Future and received a BA in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2012.

Research interest

Shefali’s research interests lie in environmental and development economics. Her research examines the role of behavior change in the transition to a zero-carbon economy. Her projects in this area use large-scale randomized control trials to evaluate the role of information, incentives and smart technologies in unlocking electricity demand flexibility and quantify the cost and emissions reduction benefits of load balancing. She has also studied the response of electricity consumption and bill payments to retail price subsidies to inform how electricity pricing in low and middle-income countries can be reformed to facilitate cost-recovery for utilities and improve the reliability of supply. In the agricultural and food sectors, she studies interventions aimed at increasing adoption of solar-based irrigation, sustainable alternatives to crop residue burning, and the adoption of sustainable diets. A second strand of her research focuses on evaluating the welfare and distributional impacts of climate and pollution mitigation policies. Her projects in this area include designing optimal asset retirement programs for industries that produce large environmental externalities, such as coal-fired power generation, and evaluating the effectiveness of crop residue burning bans in curbing agricultural fires.

Mentoring

Shefali has supervised the theses of five MSc students at Imperial College London and two MSc students at the London School of Economics.

Grants and consultancy

• Plug Adoption and Use of Smarter Energy (PAUSE) Demand. Research grant from J-PAL Air and Water Labs in India: Solutions and Advancements through Research for Water and Air (SARWA), 2025.
• The Heterogenous Effects of Air Pollution on Workers. Research grant from International Growth Centre, 2025.
• Unlocking Inclusive Policymaking in Solar Irrigation. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2024.
• Enhancing Transparency and Competitiveness in India’s Electricity Sector. Energy for Growth Hub, 2023.
• Solarizing Agriculture: Estimating the Economics Returns to Solar Irrigation Pumps in Bangladesh. Research grants: CGIAR Standing Panel on Impact Assessment, 2024; J-PAL King Climate Action Initiative, 2022; Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative, 2022; International Growth Centre, 2022.
• Building Virtual Power Plants: Incentives and Automation for Demand-Side Flexibility. Research grants: Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries, 2022; International Growth Centre, 2022; Imperial College Business School Research Fund, 2023.

Policy Engagement

Research on electricity demand management recognized by NITI Aayog, Government of India as a Top 75 idea under the Lifestyles for Environment (LiFE) Mission

Awards

Co-recipient of Ana Aguado Prize for Best Paper, Harvard Environmental Economics Program, 2021