Ryan McCord
Ryan McCord
Research Scientist, Sanford School of Public Policy
Ryan McCord is a postdoctoral associate at the Energy Access Project studying energy and development. Her research examines how energy systems shape outcomes in low- and middle-income countries, with a focus on identifying which dimensions of electricity service (i.e., reliability, affordability, capacity, etc.) are most important for translating access into improvements in health and economic well-being in different settings. She also studies how electrification programs and policies are structured, implemented, and evaluated, with the goal of identifying approaches that maximize the benefits of improved electricity services. Ryan received her PhD from Duke in Environmental Policy with a concentration in economics.
My Work
Solar Power Is Taking Off in Malawi: But Poor Households Need Financial Help to Make It Work for Them
Check out this article from The Conversation on solar power in Malawi and its impact on households.
Incentivizing Grid Reliability in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
On October 14, 2025, an in-person roundtable discussion in Washington D.C. unpacked the power reliability challenge in low- and middle-income countries and pressure-tested ideas from the newly released working paper Incentivizing Reliability: A Framework for Performance-Linked Electricity Improvements. Click here to learn more about our work in this area.
Time-money tradeoffs and the value of the time that women spend obtaining firewood
Catch up on the inaugural Environment for Development seminar series featuring Marc Jeuland. Marc presented “Time-money tradeoffs and the value of the time that women spend obtaining firewood” on November 15, 2023.
Gendered time-use and improved cooking solutions
So far, the case for clean energy has been built around health and/or environmental benefits, generally neglecting the sizable benefits that clean energy can have on freeing women’s time and reducing drudgery. Women typically spend disproportionately more time...