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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 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.
New publications:
Clearing the Air: How Companies Operate in a Climate-Conscious Era. Paul Kleindorfer, Howard Kunreuther and Eric Orts discuss how major companies are addressing their impact climate change, and the potential of climate-related regulations to reduce carbon emissions. Knowledge@Wharton, June 11, 2008.
 
Markets Without Magic - How Competition Might Save Medicare
By Mark V. Pauly, AEI Press, April 2008
The tax burden that Medicare creates is on track to more than triple within the next three decades. We must find a way to slow the rate of growth in taxpayer-financed funding for Medicare in order to make the program financially sustainable. Mark V. Pauly argues that unavoidable limits on Medicare financing can best be imposed through market-based choices rather than government direction.
"Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes: Insuring, Mitigating and Financing Recovery from Natural Disasters in the United States,""An Extreme Events Project of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center in conjunction with Georgia State University and the Insurance Information Institute, March 2008. The two-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. The report, which is being published by MIT Press (forthcoming 2009), also proposes a series of concrete innovations to make our nation more resilient to future disasters in the post-Katrina Era.
Executive Summary available here.
Read the Spring 2008 issue of the Wharton Risk Center's newsletter, Risk Management Review.
World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report, 2008. This project, involving the Risk Center, along with Citigroup, Marsh & McLennan, Swiss Re, and Zurich Financial Services, has received positive coverage from print media, including The Financial Times, AP Forbes, Business Report, The Times, Reuters, CNN, and broadcast media including Bloomberg, CNBC and Al Jazeera.
Howard Kunreuther describes how long-term insurance can help homeowners in hurricane zones save money and protect themselves at the same time. "On My Mind" Forbes.com February 11, 2008 (pdf here)
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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