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Pamela Jagger

Pam Jagger
Professor of Environment and Sustainability; Associate Director, African Studies Center
Sustainability and Development
Climate + Energy
Cross-cutting
[email protected]
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2004 Dana
Lab website
Forest Use Energy and Livelihoods (FUEL Lab)
Websites
Energy Poverty PIRE in Southern Africa

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About

Pam Jagger is a global leader in interdisciplinary population and environment research. She is an applied political economist whose research focuses on the dynamics of poverty and environment interactions in low-income countries. She leads the interdisciplinary Forest Use, Energy, and Livelihoods (FUEL) Lab, and is the Director of the National Science Foundation funded Energy Poverty PIRE in Southern Africa (EPPSA), a 5-year collaborative program to support research and training on the topic of energy access in Southern Africa. FUEL Lab research is currently organized around three themes: environment and livelihoods, environmental governance, and energy poverty. The first theme focuses on quantifying the role of forests and the other environmental resources in household consumption and income generation, and understanding how contributions change in response to land use land cover change, implementation of conservation and development projects, and population dynamics. The second theme examines the livelihood impacts of changes in environmental governance and institutions on access to environmental goods and services. The third theme examines household energy access including understanding the effectiveness of interventions designed to mitigate energy poverty and improve access to electricity and cleaner cooking and novel research questions related to the effects of land cover and land use change on energy access and human health. Dr. Jagger has worked as a policy research scholar with the World Bank, Resources for the Future, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and the Center for International Forestry Research.

Publications

Select recent publications

Parsons, S., Hayes, W., Pedit, J., Kabwe, G., Yamba, F., Serenje, N., Bailis, R., Jagger, P., and A. Grieshop. 2025. Impacts of a cookstove intervention in urban Zambia on cook’s personal exposure to carbon monoxide and particulate matter. Forthcoming at GeoHealth. 

Jagger, P., A. Gallerani, I. Hoffman, C. Jumbe, R. McCord, J. Pedit, S. Phiri, R. Krysiak, and K. Maleta. 2024. Household Air Pollution Exposure and Risk of Tuberculosis among Adult Women in Lilongwe, Malawi. BMJ Public Health 2024;2:e000176.

McCord, R., S. Parsons, A.S. Bittner, C. Jumbe, J. Pedit, N. Serenge, A. Grieshop and P. Jagger. 2024. Risk of Cognitive Impairment from Biomass Cooking in Africa. Indoor Air 2024: 7363613.  

Thompson, J., R.B. Ramazani, C.S. Sinai, K.K. Bindu, and P. Jagger. 2024. Do Decentralized Solar Mini Grids Improve Energy Access for Small Enterprises in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo? Energy for Sustainable Development 81:101464.  

Zhang, Q., S. Tao, P. Jagger, R. Bilsborrow, Z. Shang, Q. Huang, L. Band, Q. Zhang and C. Song. 2024. Remittance from migrants reinforces forest recovery for China’s reforestation policy. PLoS One 19(6): e0296751. 

Jagger, P., J. Zavaleta Cheek, D.C. Miller, C. Ryan, P. Shyamsundar, and E.O. Sills. 2022. The Role of Forests and Trees in Poverty Dynamics. Forest Policy and Economics 140:102750.

Google Scholar page
Research

2022 Co-Investigator, National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Aging, Developing Infrastructure for the Longitudinal Study of Health and Ageing in Kenya (LOSHAK) ($338,599 USD)

2019 Co-Investigator, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Clean Cooking Implementation Science Network, Fogarty International Center (FIC), Feasibility of Scaling ‘Clean Stacking’ Options in Southern Africa ($74,993 USD)

2018 Co-Investigator, National Geographic Society (NGS), Sustainable Cities Program, Searching for Clean Air and Sustainable Energy Transitions in Yangon, Myanmar ($83,520 USD)

2018 PI and PIRE Director, National Science Foundation (NSF), Partnerships in International Research and Education (PIRE), PIRE: Confronting Energy Poverty: Building an Interdisciplinary Evidence Base, Network, and Capacity for Transformative Change ($4,790,000 USD)

Accolades

Resident Fellow (2024/25), Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC

Education

Ph.D. Public Policy, Indiana University
M.Sc. Forest Economics, University of Alberta
B.A. Economics, University of Alberta

Affiliations
  • University of Michigan
    • Professor (courtesy), Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
    • Professor, Program in the Environment, College of Literature, Science and the Arts
    • Faculty Associate, Survey Research Center
    • Faculty Associate, Population Dynamics and Health Program
    • Faculty Associate, Population Studies Center
    • Faculty Affiliate, Institute for Energy Solutions
  • University of North Carolina
    • Research Professor, Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    • Faculty Fellow, Carolina Population Center
  • RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, Essen, Germany
    • Research Fellow
  • Environment for Development Initiative, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
    • Senior Research Fellow
    • Research Committee
In the News
A bunch of underripe bananas on a banana tree
May 12, 2025

Amid climate extremes, Ugandan communities help shape the future of climate and health research

A collaborative research project is piloting a survey to help better understand how climate shocks, such as flooding, drought and extreme heat, affect health and well...

Kazizila Village, Malawi, Africa
November 27, 2023

Meeting the Future of Energy Access in Malawi

Most rural Malawians lack access to sustainable and affordable modern energy services and products. SEAS Professor Pam Jagger, a political economist, and Professors Charles Jumbe and Thabbie Chilongo, development economists at the Center for Agricultural Research and Development at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Malawi, are working on several studies focused on energy access. Their collaboration produces research that is used to inform policy and program development in Malawi.

Jasmyn Noel (MS ’23)
April 18, 2023

Meet the future of Sustainability and Development: Jasmyn Noel (MS ’23)

Why SEAS? Jasmyn Noel (MS ’23) says she was drawn to the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) because she wanted to learn the skills...

 SEAS Alum Caleb Milliken: Environmental Economist
March 7, 2023

SEAS alum Caleb Milliken: environmental economist

Within a few months after earning his master’s degree at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), Caleb Milliken (MS ’22) stepped into...

forest
November 1, 2022

Research Highlights

Research highlights from SEAS faculty.

Meet the future of Sustainability and Development: Josh Thompson (MS ’22)
April 25, 2022

Meet the future of Sustainability and Development: Josh Thompson (MS ’22)

Josh Thompson (MS ’22) has focused on the issues of climate change from a global perspective, which he developed and built upon during his time at the U-M School for...

Myanmar Pathogens
February 22, 2022

Study of pathogens in the environment in Myanmar offers clues to the spread of disease

[email protected] Scientists have extensively studied water and sanitation interventions to decrease the transmission of pathogens and disease prevention. But a new...

 Firewood is loaded into the rudimentary mud ovens, and trays of fish are stacked on top for smoking, which is done to preserve the fish. Photo by Pam Jagger, University of Michigan.
January 12, 2022

Fish smoking in coastal Ghana linked to high pollutant exposures, elevated health burden

ANN ARBOR—Millions of workers in coastal Africa—most of them women—spend their days preserving fish by smoking them in rudimentary, wood-fired mud ovens. University of...

In the Media
07/05/2024
Pamela Jagger
SEAS Professor Pamela Jagger has been selected as a Wilson Center Fellow
01/18/2024
Pamela Jagger
Rajiv Ghimire
Catalyst Grants awarded to SEAS faculty
11/01/2018
Pamela Jagger
A penny for your preferences
09/01/2017
Pamela Jagger
Q&A with energy grant recipient Pam Jagger
08/01/2017
Pamela Jagger
PIRE: Confronting Energy Poverty: Building an Interdisciplinary Evidence Base, Network, and Capacity for Transformative Change
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