2006 DISTINGUISHED LECTURE SERIES

The Department of Risk Management and Insurance is pleased to announce the establishment of a lecture series where highly distinguished scholars will be invited to address topics of importance related to the modeling and management of risk.

We are also pleased to announce that Christian Gollier, Professor of Economics at Toulouse University, will be the inaugural scholar for the series. Professor Gollier will discuss open research questions in the economics of risky decision making.

Professor Gollier’s work has been devoted to increasing our understanding of the impact risk has on the behavior of economic agents and on how risky assets are priced with application to finance, insurance, environmental economics and macroeconomics. Most recently he has analyzed the question of whether longer time horizons induce more risk-taking, and whether better social insurance encourages households to invest more in the stock market. He is also currently interested in the management of irreversible decisions over the distant future in a world with scientific uncertainty with applications to global warming and nuclear risk management.

Dr. Gollier has published over 70 papers in the leading scientific journals in economics including Econometrica, the Review of Economic Studies, the Journal of Economic Theory, and the Journal of Political Economy including many others. In 2001, his book entitled “The Economics of Risk and Time” (MIT Press), received multiple awards including the prestigious TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award and the Kulp Wright Book Award by the American Risk and Insurance Association.

All faculty and Ph.D. students are invited to attend the lecture series. Ph.D. students should register for the course on GO SOLAR (CRN #14806).

2006 SCHEDULE

PART I: The Economics of Risk: Classic Results and New Theory
Lecture	Date	Time	Topic	Location	Materials
1	Feb. 16	8:45 to 10:45 am	Economics of Insurance Demand and Portfolio Choice	Aderhold 302	Download here
2	Feb. 23	8:45 to 10:45 am	The Fallacious Interpretion of the Law of Large Numbers: Application to Insurance and Finance	Aderhold 302	Download here
3	Feb. 28	8:45 to 10:45 am	Investment for Retirement: Optimal Management of Individual Accounts and Collective Pension Funds	Aderhold 302	Download (1) here Download (2) here Download (3) here
4	Mar. 2	8:45 to 10:45 am	The Working of Risk Markets when People Have Heterogeneous Beliefs	Aderhold 302	Download (1) here Download (2) here
PART II: New Models of Choice under Uncertainty
Lecture	Date	Time	Topic	Location	Materials
5	Apr. 4	8:45 to 10:45 am	Impact of Ambiguous Probabilities on Choices	Aderhold 202	Download here
6	Apr. 13	8:45 to 10:45 am	Misery Loves Company: A General Model of Risk Management under Conformism	Aderhold 202	Download here
7	Apr. 20	8:45 to 10:45 am	Insurance and Portfolio Choices when People Anticipate Regret	Aderhold 202	Download here
8	Apr. 25	8:45 to 10:45 am	Optimal Positive Thinking and Decisions Under Risk	Aderhold 202	Download (1) here Download (2) here