Gracia Hadiwidjaja

Climate Finance Researcher, Policy Analyst, and Ph.D. Candidate

Gracia (Grace) Hadiwidjaja is an environmental policy researcher and Ph.D. Candidate at the Yale School of the Environment, studying as a Fulbright Scholar. Her work operates at the critical intersection of climate finance, adaptive social protection, and environmental economics. She focuses on designing and evaluating financial mechanisms and policy instruments that help vulnerable populations and developing nations build resilience against climate shocks.

Prior to her doctoral studies, Gracia built extensive practical expertise at the World Bank Indonesia, where she analyzed the socio-economic impacts of climate change and helped identify policy priorities for adaptive social protection. She has also contributed significantly to research with the SMERU Research Institute, evaluating the effectiveness of economic interventions in addressing environmental crises.

Academic Background

• Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental Policy, Yale School of the Environment (Fulbright Scholar, 2023 cohort).

• M.Sc. in Policy Analysis, KU Leuven (Belgium).

• B.A. in Mathematics and Religious Studies, University of Virginia.

Professional Roles & Affiliations

• Researcher, SPIRES Lab (Yale University): Contributing to academic research on environmental policy, governance, and the economic drivers of climate-related behavior.

• Analyst/Researcher, World Bank Indonesia: Co-authored pivotal reports on adaptive social protection, exploring how financial safety nets and human capital development can mitigate the disproportionate impacts of climate change on the poor.

• Research Contributor, The SMERU Research Institute: Collaborated on large-scale policy experiments, including randomized control trials (RCTs) evaluating the effectiveness of conditional cash payments as financial incentives to prevent land-clearing forest fires in Indonesia.

Areas of Expertise

• Climate Finance & Economic Incentives: Evaluating the efficacy of positive financial incentives (such as conditional cash transfers) versus regulatory approaches to prevent deforestation, habitat destruction, and greenhouse gas emissions.

• Adaptive Social Protection: Developing strategic frameworks that use financial safety nets to protect vulnerable households from climate change impacts and climate-induced disasters.

• Environmental Policy & Human Capital: Analyzing the relationship between human capital development, poverty reduction, and a community’s capacity for climate change adaptation and disaster recovery.