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The Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center is a nexus of people and projects devoted to furthering the practical understanding of how to manage situations of risk involving health, safety, and the environment in both the private and public sectors of our society. For over twenty-five years, the Center has been at the forefront of research into the management of low-probability/high-consequence events. In addition to working on programs of basic and applied research, Risk Center faculty serve on national and international advisory committees, with partnerships in government, academia, industry, and NGOs.
Building on the disciplines of economics, decision sciences, finance, insurance, and marketing, the Center's research program is focused on descriptive research and prescriptive analyses. Descriptive research focuses on how individuals and organizations interact and make decisions regarding the management of risk. Prescriptive analyses propose ways that individuals and organizations, both private and governmental, can make better decisions regarding risk. The Center supports and undertakes field and experimental studies of risk and uncertainty to better understand the link between descriptive and prescriptive approaches to decision making in coping with technological and natural hazards under various regulatory, environmental, and market conditions. Center research investigates the effectiveness of strategies such as incentive systems, insurance, regulation, and the communication of risk information.
The Center actively engages multiple viewpoints, including the expertise of top-level representatives from the worlds of insurance, industry, academia, environmental concern, law, and government.
This site provides information on ongoing research, current and past publications, and upcoming events.
Risk Regulation Seminars:
4:30 – 6:00 pm
Jon M. Huntsman Hall
3730 Walnut Street,
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Seminars are free and open to the public.
November 17, 2009
Time: 4:30-6:00 pm
Room F60, Huntsman Hall
“Does the Sarbanes-Oxley Act Have a Future?”
Roberta Romano, Oscar M. Ruebhausen Professor of Law at Yale Law School; Director, Yale Law School's Center for the Study of Corporate Law
January 26, 2010
Time: 4:30-6:00 pm
Huntsman Hall, room TBA
“Obama's Regulatory Agenda: A One-Year Retrospective”
Panel appraising the first year of regulation under President Obama.
Speaker: Jeff Ruch, Executive Director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in DC.
February 23, 2010
Time: 4:30-6:00 pm
Location: Huntsman Hall, room TBA
“Well-being and Equity: A Framework for Policy Analysis”
Matthew Adler, Leon Meltzer Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania
March 23, 2010
Time: 4:30-6:00 pm
Location: Huntsman Hall, room TBA
"Economics and Climate Change”
Gary Yohe, Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics, Wesleyan University
April 20, 2010
Time: 4:30-6:00 pm
Location: Huntsman Hall, room TBA
Leo Katz, Penn Law School, will present a forthcoming book, entitled "Why the Law is So Perverse." Bruce Chapman from Toronto and Lewis Kornhauser from NYU will speak as commentators on the book.
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New publications:
 At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes, MIT Press 2009.
In 2005, three major hurricanes—Katrina, Rita, and Wilma—made landfall along
the U.S. Gulf Coast within an eight-week period. The damage caused by these storms led
to insurance reimbursements and federal disaster relief of more than $180 billion—a
record sum. Today we are more vulnerable to catastrophic losses because of the increasing
concentration of population and activities in high-risk coastal regions of the
country. In At War with the Weather, Howard Kunreuther and Erwann Michel-Kerjan and their
colleagues deliver a groundbreaking analysis of how we currently mitigate, insure
against, and finance recovery from natural disasters in the United States. The three-year study analyzes data on over 10 million homeowners' policies and the operations of private and state-run insurance companies in the hurricane-prone states of Florida, New York, South Carolina and Texas, interpreted in the context of existing state insurance regulatory systems and the structure of the property insurance market in the United States.
 Watch the trailer
"Dealing with the Extraordinary" Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Tech Report, September 2009
Erwann Michel-Kerjan answers questions on the changing nature of catastrophic risk.
The Irrational Economist, Erwann Michel-Kerjan and Paul Slovic (eds.) Public Affairs Press, 2010
Distilling the best knowledge from decision sciences, behavioral economics, neuroscience, psychology, management, insurance, and finance, some of the world's leading pioneers in these fields, including several Nobel laureates, introduce the latest discoveries and thinking that might help us to get our decisions right.
"The Need for Long-Term Flood Insurance and Mitigation Loans." Natural Hazards Observer, March 2009, pp.8-10
Invited comment by Howard Kunreuther and Erwann Michel-Kerjan. Full issue here.
"Katrina, 9/11, Global Recession: Moving Beyond Old Thinking about New Risks" Knowledge@Wharton, February 18, 2009
Panelists from the December 2008 risk management conference at Wharton, "The Irrational Economist" present their views on how to prepare for natural and man-made disasters that have wider effects as the world grows more interconnected.
“Anticipating risks, averting the worst." The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 16, 2008
Howard Kunreuther and Michael Useem
With Congress balking at a bailout, General Motors soon could be driven into the dustbin of history. How did an icon of American business reach such a disastrous state? For an answer, it's instructive to consider natural disasters - which, like corporate calamities, have been particularly devastating to the country in recent years. Online in The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Risk Management Review, Spring 2009.
The newsletter of the Wharton Risk Management Center.
World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report, 2009. Global Risks 2009 identifies deteriorating fiscal positions, a hard landing in China, a collapse in asset prices, gaps in global governance and issues relating to natural resources and climate as the pivotal risks facing the world this year. The Wharton Risk Center has been the academic partner of the World Economic Forum since 2005. Press Release.
October 11, 2009, San Diego
At the annual INFORMS conference, Nitin Bakshi was chosen from among five finalists to receive the prestigious Dantzig Dissertation Award for his thesis "Disruption Risk Management and Supply Chain Resilience" done at Wharton with advisors Noah Gans and Paul Kleindorfer. The George B. Dantzig Award is given for the best dissertation in any area of operations research and the management sciences that is innovative and relevant to practice. This award has been established to encourage academic research that combines theory and practice and stimulates greater interaction between doctoral students (and their advisors) and the world of practice.
Congratulations to Nitin on this impressive honor.
The Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center
500 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
3730 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 898-5688
For more information on the Center or this website, please contact our webmaster.
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