Summary
Howard Kunreuther is the James G. Dinan Professor; Professor of Decision Sciences and Business and Public Policy at the Wharton School; and Co-Director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. He has a long-standing interest in ways that society can better manage low-probability/high-consequence events related to technological and natural hazards. Dr. Kunreuther is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis, receiving the Society’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 2001. On June 21, 2007 he offered expert testimony at the Congressional hearing on Examining a Legislative Solution to Extend and Revise the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA). He recently served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Adaptation Strategies for Climate Change, and co-chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Innovation and Leadership in Reducing Risks from Natural Disasters. He currently serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Humanitarian Assistance 2010, and the OECD’s High Level Advisory Board on Financial Management of Large-Scale Catastrophes. His most recent books are At War with the Weather (with Erwann Michel-Kerjan) (July 2009, MIT Press), and Learning from Catastrophes: Strategies for Reaction and Response (with Michael Useem) (January 2010, Wharton School Publishing).
| Current Institution | University of Pennsylvania |
| Department | Operations and Information Management |
| Disciplines | |
| Address | 3730 Walnut Street, 563 Jon M. Huntsman Hall Philadelphia Pennsylvania 19104 United States Phone: (225) 898-4589 |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ph.D,
Economics
(1965)
Bates College
B.A.,
Major: Economics
- World Bank – Determining the Attractiveness of Alternative Risk Reducing Measures for Structures, Crops and Infrastructure in Hazard-Prone Areas (2009 - 2011)
Publication Summary
Publications
Books and Monographs
- Behavioral Economics and Insurance: Improving Decisions in the Most Misunderstood Industry (with Mark Pauly and Stacey McMorrow). Cambridge University Press (forthcoming)
- Learning from Catastrophes: Strategies for Reaction and Response (with Michael Useem). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing. (2010).
- At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes (with Erwann Michel-Kerjan) (2009, 2011). Cambridge: MIT Press. (Winner of the 2011 Kulp-Wright Book Award, presented annually by the American Risk and Insurance Association (ARIA) to the author of a book considered to be the most influential text published on the economics of risk management and insurance.)
- On Risk and Disaster: Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina (with Ronald Daniels and Donald Kettl) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. (2006). 7
- TRIA and Beyond (with Neil Doherty, Esther Goldsmith, Scott Harrington, Paul Kleindorfer, Erwann Michel-Kerjan, Mark Pauly, Irv Rosenthal, and Peter Schmeidler). Wharton Risk Center. (2005).
- Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk (with Patricia Grossi and Chandu Patel, eds.). Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. (2005).
- Risk Analysis for Extreme Events: Economic Incentives for Reducing Future Losses (with Robert Meyer and Christophe van den Bulte). (2004, October). National Institute of Standards and Technology GCR 04-871,
- Economics of Natural Disasters (with Adam Rose, ed.) Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. (2004). Accident Precursors: Averting Accidents with Foresight (with James Phimister and Vicki Bier). National Research Council. (2004, July).
- Risk, Media, and Stigma: Understanding Public Challenges to Modern Science and Technology (with James Flynn and Paul Slovic, eds.). London: Earthscan. (2001).
- Wharton on Making Decisions (with Stephen J. Hoch and Robert E. Gunther). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2001).
- Paying the Price: The Status and Role of Insurance Against Natural Disasters in the United States(with Richard Roth, Sr., eds.). Washington, DC, Joseph Henry Press. (1998).
- Managing Environmental Risk Through Insurance (with Paul K. Freeman). Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, and Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers (translated into Japanese). (1997).
- “Challenges in Risk Assessment and Management” (with Paul Slovic) (eds.). Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science. (1996, May).
- Energy, Environment and the Economy: Asian Perspectives (with Paul R. Kleindorfer and David S. Hong) (eds.). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. (1996).
- The Dilemma of Siting a High-Level Radioactive Waste Repository (with Doug Easterling). Boston:
- Kluwer Academic Publishers. (1995).
- Decision Sciences, An Integrated Perspective (with Paul Kleindorfer and Paul Schoemaker). Cambridge University Press. (1993).
- Edited special issue of Journal of Risk and Uncertainty (with Colin Camerer) on “Making Decisions about the Liability in Insurance,” (December 1993).
- International Trade in Insurance (with Mark Pauly). Irwin Publishers. (1990).
- Integrating Insurance and Risk Management Strategies for Hazardous Wastes (with Rajeev Gowda) (eds.). Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. (1990).
- Insuring and Managing Hazardous Risks: From Seveso to Bhopal and Beyond (with Paul Kleindorfer) (eds.). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. (1987).
- Risk Analysis and Decision Processes: The Siting of LEG Facilities in Four Countries (with J.
- Linnerooth, J. Lathrop, H. Atz, C. Mandl, S. MacGill, M. Schwartz, M. Thompson). Berlin: SpringerVerlag. (1983). 8
- Market Equilibrium with Private Knowledge: An Insurance Example (with Mark Pauly). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. (1982).
- Risk: A Seminar Series (ed.). IIASA. (1982).
- The Risk Analysis Controversy (with E. Lay) (eds.). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. (1982).
- Behavioral Determinants of Market Failure: The Case of Disaster Insurance (with Ralph Ginsberg).
- Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. (1978).
- Disaster Insurance Protection: Public Policy Lessons (with R. Ginsberg, L. Miller, P. Sagi, P. Slovic, B. Borkan, and N. Katz). Wiley Interscience. (1978).
- An Interactive Modeling System for Disaster Policy Analysis (with Lepore, Miller, Vinso, Wilson, Borkan, Duffy, and Katz). Boulder: Institute for Behavioral Science. (1978).
- Recovery from Natural Disasters: Insurance or Federal Aid? Washington: American Enterprise Institute
- for Public Policy Research. (1973).
- The Economics of Natural Disasters: Implications for Federal Policy, with D. Dacy. New York: The Free Press, MacMillan. (1969). Winner of the 1971 Elizur Wright Award for the publication that made "the most significant contribution to the literature of insurance."
Books
Other Publications

