Michael R. Powers
Michael Roland Powers (born November 19, 1959) is Professor of Risk Management and Insurance at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Finance at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management. An internationally recognized insurance scholar, he is particularly prominent in China’s academic community.[1] His major research contributions include the introduction of intertemporal discounting into collective risk theory (actuarial ruin theory),[2] and the derivation of the “Powers-Shubik square-root rule” for the approximate number of reinsurance companies operating in a national insurance market.[3] He currently edits the Journal of Risk Finance.[4]
Powers received his B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Yale University and his Ph.D. in Statistics from Harvard University. Appointed Deputy Insurance Commissioner for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (a sub-cabinet-level post in the state government) in 1987,[5] he was responsible for designing Pennsylvania’s current “choice” no-fault automobile-insurance system.[6] He joined the faculty of Temple University in 1990, and has published over sixty articles and book chapters on a variety of regulatory and public-policy topics.[7] He also has co-edited two books – The Economics and Politics of Choice No-Fault Insurance (2001, Kluwer) and Global Risk Management: Financial, Operational, and Insurance Strategies (2002, JAI/Elsevier) – and is the author of Icons (2003, Dry Bones Press), a science-fiction/fantasy novel.
Powers’ research has been recognized by awards from the Journal of Risk and Insurance,[8] the Risk and Insurance Management Society, and the International Insurance Society. A frequent collaborator with Yale University’s Martin Shubik, he is responsible for promoting the application of game-theoretic modeling in insurance and actuarial science.[9]
Powers’ work received media attention during the 2008 U.S. Presidential election campaign when his published comments[10] on the relative life expectancies of candidates John McCain and Barack Obama were cited by actor Matt Damon and others as a cause for concern.[11]
References
- ^ See http://mba.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/mba/tabid/193/ctl/Detail/mid/678/ItemId/947/Default.aspx?SkinSrc= and http://www.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/homepage/infoSingleArticle.do?articleId=11963&columnId=1779 (in Chinese).
- ^ Powers, M. R., 1995, "A Theory of Risk, Return, and Solvency," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, 17, 2, 101-118.
- ^ Powers, M. R. and Shubik, M., 2006, "A 'Square-Root Rule' for Reinsurance," Revista de Contabilidade e Finanças (Review of Accounting and Finance), 17, 5, 101-107.
- ^ See http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/editorial_team.htm?id=jrf.
- ^ See http://www.dgs.state.pa.us/dgs/lib/dgs/pa_manual/section4/cabinet_level_agencies.pdf.
- ^ Powers, M. R., 1992, "Equity in Automobile Insurance: Optional No-Fault," Journal of Risk and Insurance, 59, 2, 203-220.
- ^ See http://astro.temple.edu/~powersmr/.
- ^ See http://www.aria.org/awards/journalaward.htm.
- ^ See, e.g., Powers, M. R., Shubik, M., and Yao, S. T., 1998, "Insurance Market Games: Scale Effects and Public Policy," Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie (Journal of Economics), 67, 2, 109-134; Powers, M. R. and Shubik, M., 2001, "Toward a Theory of Reinsurance and Retrocession," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, 29, 2, 271-290; and Powers, M. R., 2007, "Using Aumann-Shapley Values to Allocate Insurance Risk: The Case of Inhomogeneous Losses," North American Actuarial Journal, 11, 3, 113-127.
- ^ See http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=253B8DF9-18FE-70B2-A8961A86DC5B16C7.
- ^ See http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2008/09/the_theology_of_sarah_palin.html.