Commemorating Howard Kunreuther

The passing of Penn’s pioneering behavioral economist and risk expert prompts tributes from those whose lives and work he touched.

Last year, the academic fields of insurance, behavioral economics, and risk analysis lost a pioneering scholar with the passing of Howard Kunreuther. All those who had been privileged to work with Kunreuther throughout his long and distinguished career have mourned the loss of a dear mentor, colleague, and friend.

After earning his Ph.D. in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kunreuther began his legendary career as a Fulbright Scholar at the Netherlands School of Economics and then as a member of the faculty at the University of Chicago. In 1972, he joined the faculty at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he would spend most of the rest of his career. At Wharton, he served as the Chair of the Decision Sciences Department, the Cecilia Yen Koo Professor and Professor of Decision Sciences and Public Policy, and, at the time of his retirement, the James G. Dinan Professor and Professor of Decision Sciences and Public Policy. He also served as a Visiting Research Scientist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. From 1988 to 1989, he headed the National Science Foundation’s Decision Risk and Management Science Program.

Kunreuther pathbreaking research focused on how individuals and societies respond to low-probability, high-consequence events. One of his earliest academic articles, published in the Journal of Law and Economics, made the case for comprehensive disaster insurance. His hundreds of articles and dozens of books included Learning from Catastrophes: Strategies for Reaction and Response (with Michael Useem), Decision Sciences: An Integrated Perspective (with Paul Kleindorfer and Paul J.H. Schoemaker), and Disaster Insurance Protection: Public Policy Lessons (with Paul Slovic and others). Kunreuther was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis, from which he also received the Society’s Distinguished Achievement Award.

Kunreuther was an active faculty member affiliated with Penn Program on Regulation (PPR) at the University of Pennsylvania. “One of the most cherished honors and privileges of my career has been to collaborate with Howard,” notes Cary Coglianese, PPR’s Director and a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania. “In addition to adding richly to many PPR projects and events as a speaker and participant, Howard served as an anchor for many years in organizing and hosting our annual risk regulation seminar series co-sponsored between PPR and the Wharton Risk Center.”

The Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center that Kunreuther co-founded in 1985, and co-directed until his retirement decades later, engaged throughout its history with thousands of students, fellows, staff, and faculty. It produced an extraordinary array of high-impact research projects, policy dialogues, and partnerships, and it served as a forum for multistakeholder collaboration and deliberation on some of the most pressing risk issues of our time, including industrial accidents, natural disasters, terrorism, and climate change.

Kunreuther has been profiled in the journal Risk Analysis for his enormous contributions to the fields of decision sciences and risk analysis. After he passed away, many of his colleagues and friends have paid tribute to him in various other venues, including on the websites of the Wharton School, Penn Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.

To join with these institutions in commemorating Kunreuther’s exceptional impact as a scholar, mentor, teacher, policy analyst, friend, and colleague, PPR invited many of those who knew him best to offer more extended reflections, both professional and personal, on his life and legacy. We are publishing this series of tributes throughout the coming month in The Regulatory Review.

The Review is honored that this series begins by publishing posthumously a tribute essay about Kunreuther by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, the pioneering behavioral scientist who served on the faculty at Princeton University. This series then continues with essays by, in alphabetical order, the following additional contributors: Wouter Botzen (VU Amsterdam), Cary Coglianese (Penn), Morris A. Cohen (Penn), Robin Dillon-Merrill (Georgetown), Baruch Fischhoff (Carnegie Mellon), Robin Gregory (Decision Research), Michael Greenberg (Rutgers), Carol Heller (Penn), Jack Hershey (Penn), Scott Gabriel Knowles (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), Barbara Mellers (Penn), Katy Milkman (Penn), Eric W. Orts (Penn), Paul J.H. Schoemaker (Mack Institute), Paul Slovic (University of Oregon), Michael Useem (Penn). The Review is honored to have this series conclude with a personal essay written by Kunreuther’s daughter, Laura Kunreuther, a professor at Bard College.

Tagged: Decisionmaking, Howard Kunreuther, Penn Program on Regulation, Risk Analysis, risk insurance, Risk Management, University of Pennsylvania

Series of Essays

The First Modern Behavioral Economist

A Tireless Risk Taker Who Brightened the World

Mentoring for Good

Working Across Boundaries

Howard Was Always There

Moving Mountains

Remembering Howard Kunreuther

A Cross-Disciplinary Pioneer and Mentor

A Legacy in the Economics of Natural Disaster Risk Management

Howard Kunreuther and the Facility-Siting Credo

Professional Enthusiasm and Personal Exuberance

Howard Was a Valued Colleague and Friend

Conversations with Howard

Honoring Howard Kunreuther

A COVIDCalls Discussion with Howard Kunreuther

The Hopeful Science of Howard Kunreuther

The Five-Tool Policy Analyst

The Joyful Economist

“When You Ride a Bicycle”

Related Essays

“When You Ride a Bicycle”

The Joyful Economist

The Five-Tool Policy Analyst