Events Calendar

CREATE Seminar w/ Howard Kunreuther

Speaker: Howard Kunreuther, Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center - University of Pennsylvania

Talk Title: Reducing Losses from Flood-Related Disasters: Dealing with Affordability

Series: CREATE Monthly Seminar Series

Abstract: Many residents in flood-prone areas are complaining that they cannot afford to purchase flood insurance because their premiums have been increased significantly due to the passage of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 that mandates risk-based premiums. This goal of this legislation was to reduce the growing deficit in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Due to the above concerns of homeowners in flood-prone areas, Congress is now seriously considering delaying the implementation of this legislation and possible repealing it. I will suggest ways to address the affordability issue by providing means-tested vouchers and incentivizing investments in loss reduction measures using risk-based premiums. The importance of redesigning homes takes on added significance in the face of climate change and sea level rise. Backround paper attached.

Please RSVP to me (calicchi@usc.edu) no later than Monday, February 24th.


Biography: Howard C. 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. He is a Coordinating Lead Author on the chapter on Risk and Uncertainty Assessment for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis. His most recent books are Learning from Catastrophes: Strategies for Reaction and Response (with M. Useem) (2010), and At War with the Weather (with E. Michel-Kerjan) (2009, paperback, 2011), winner of the Kulp-Wright Book Award from the American Risk and Insurance Association in 2011 and Insurance and Behavioral Economics: Improving Decisions in the Most Misunderstood Industry (with Mark Pauly and Stacey McMorrow 2013).

Host: CREATE at USC

More Information: WP2013_Affordability-NFIP_CK-HK dec2013.pdf

Location: RTH 324

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Erin Pearson (Calicchio)