Climate Center

March 21, 2019 Margaret Walls, Matthew Wibbenmeyer, and Carolyn Kousky Climate change is contributing to increasing losses from floods and wildfires in many parts of the United States. These disasters have an important feature in common: their likelihood of occurrence and potential damages vary significantly across the landscape, with some…Read More

February 25, 2019 Carolyn Kousky When PG&E filed for bankruptcy protection in January, several observers declared the electric utility the first casualty of climate change. But as much as global warming is to blame for PG&E’s financial woes, state policy is equally responsible. California has a legal regime, practically unique…Read More

January 28, 2019 Benjamin Collier and Marc Ragin Households face a high-stakes problem in selecting an insurance contract. How much coverage should they buy? What deductible should they choose? The household must weigh premiums paid today against losses from an unlikely – but possibly catastrophic – future event such as…Read More

November 14, 2018 Jacob Sherman and Carolyn Kousky Following pricing changes to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and several years of rising premiums, the city of Portland, Oregon began to see flood insurance as a destabilizing force in some neighborhoods. In the absence of any changes to federal policy,…Read More

September 25, 2018 The University of Pennsylvania is home to the world’s first and one of the largest student-run hackathons.  Over one weekend in early September roughly 1,200 students converged for PennApps.  Over 3,000 students had applied to attend.  This year, the Wharton Risk Center’s Policy Incubator and the Insurance…Read More

September 20, 2018 Brett Lingle* and Carolyn Kousky Florida homeowners are extremely vulnerable to flood damage, yet many of those at risk are uninsured. For the last fifty years, the federally-run National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has largely been homeowners’ only option for flood insurance. In just the last few…Read More

September 17, 2018 Carolyn Kousky and Brett Lingle* Disaster insurance can be a critical part of household and community resilience. Government disaster aid is rarely enough to cover the costs of the repairs and rebuilding that must be done. After Hurricane Harvey, for example, the average household grant from the Federal Emergency Management…Read More

August 30, 2018 Carolyn Kousky and Jacob Sherman Flood insurance can be confusing.  It is generally excluded from homeowners policies.  The policy terms are not standard. Premiums and fees vary and change over time.  Households may be able to lower costs, but they are not informed about ways to do…Read More

August 2, 2018 Carolyn Kousky, Howard Kunreuther, Brett Lingle*, and Leonard Shabman Since 1968, the NFIP has been homeowners’ only option for flood insurance, but over the past several years, a small private market for residential flood insurance has emerged. While it accounts for less than 5% of all residential…Read More