Faculty in the News

Whether developing a safe vaccine or figuring out how to encourage its adoption, the same scientific method — systematically experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t — is key.

Interview with Howard Kunreuther and Michael Useem on findings from their book, Mastering Catastrophic Risk: How Companies Are Coping with Disruption.

“We need to figure out ways where the State of California, insurers, utilities and residents can take steps to reduce these losses in the future.”

Howard Kunreuther: “There’s a tendency for all of us — not just firms, but individuals — to be myopic,” he says, “to want to get something back in the short term to justify an investment. It often takes a disaster to get people to pay attention.”

Interview with Howard Kunreuther.

New research shows lenders could make more prudent decisions.

Interview with Howard Kunreuther on the preliminary report by the commission set up by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo about how to deal with future extreme storms.

Critics of federal disaster aid contend that paying for building along the ocean provides an incentive for unsustainable behavior.  Marty Moss-Coane’s interview with Howard Kunreuther, co-director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center and Scott Gabriel Knowles, Drexel University associate professor of History & Politics.  (Audio: http://soundcloud.com/whyy-public-media/the-moral-hazard-sandy-relief).

Op-ed by Howard Kunreuther and Mark Pauly, co-authors of Insurance and Behavioral Economics: Improving Decisions in the Most Misunderstood Industry.

From the World Economic Forum in Davos:  Jim Cantore interviews Howard Kunreuther, Wharton Professor of Operations and Information Management (video).

How long-term insurance can help homeowners in hurricane zones save money and protect themselves at the same time.

Howard Kunreuther was asked by the New York Times’ Freakonomics blogger, Stephen Dubner, to respond to the question,”What Is the State of U.S. Disaster-Preparedness?” A Freakonomics Quorum.

Howard Kunreuther is interviewed about his New York Times op-ed, “Who Will Pay for the Next Hurricane?”

Howard Kunreuther authored an op-ed on financing the costs of natural disasters.

Coverage of working paper on longevity and bicycling.

The Risk Center’s Howard Kunreuther is interviewed by Thames Schoenvogel of SNL Financial about the history of the Risk Center and its current Natural Disaster Insurance Project.

Terrapass, a venture founded as an MBA class project is described by the New York Times as one of the most noteworthy ideas of 2005.

Following a corporate scandal, managers who acknowledge they have problems and launch communication programs to repair their tarnished reputations stand the best chance of rehabilitating a tainted brand or corporate image, according to Wharton faculty and branding consultants.

The Wharton School’s Howard Kunreuther spent four decades studying ways to manage the risks of floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, chemical accidents, and other natural and technological disasters. Then came 9/11, “the ultimate low-probability event.”

“Pixar isn’t like Disney; they don’t do things the same way,” Mar Elepano, production supervisor of the division of animation and digital arts at USC’s School of Cinema-Television, told MacNewsWorld. “At Disney, there’s the problem of too many cooks in the kitchen.” But Elepano pointed out that Disney has one thing Pixar needs — an “incredible distribution mechanism.”

Adding more fuel to the drive to oust Michael Eisner as chairman of the board of the Walt Disney Co., five more state pension funds plan to withhold their votes for Eisner at Disney’s shareholders meeting.

Advance publicity is key to record albums’ success, states Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader “and by trying to stamp out peer-to-peer music trading, record companies are shooting themselves in the foot.”

Who cares what Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert think? An old Hollywood saw is that movie critics are out of sync with the ticket-buying public. Consider L. A. Confidential, a police drama set in the 1950’s starring Kim Basinger and Kevin Spacey. All the reviewers’ talk about Oscar-level performances and four-star quality didn’t matter at the box office, where the film noir has thus far bagged a so-so $33 million.

Wondering what movies to see this summer? Worried you will not receive your full $7.50 worth of shadowy sex, high-gloss pyrotechnics and spilled viscera?

The secret to Hollywood’s blockbuster box office sales so far in 1993. is simple: The movies are good.