Michael R. Powers

Michael Roland Powers
Michael Roland Powers
Born	November 19, 1959 (age 64)
Education	Yale University; Harvard University
Occupation(s)	Professor, Statistician, Author
Known for	Zurich Insurance Group Chair Professor of Finance at Tsinghua University

Michael Roland Powers (

academic who is the Chair Professor of Finance at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management (SEM) in China. Since 2014, he has held a dual appointment as professor at Tsinghua's Schwarzman College. An internationally recognized risk and insurance expert, he was a 2011 recipient of China’s Thousand Talents Plan award. In 2013, he won the Kulp-Wright Book Award for Acts of God and Man: Ruminations on Risk and Insurance (2012, Columbia University Press).^[1]

Research

Powers has published numerous scholarly articles on a variety of risk-related topics, with particular focus on issues of government regulation and public policy.

game-theoretic modeling in insurance and actuarial science.^[6] In Acts of God and Man, he proposed a science of risk based upon: a fundamentalist Bayesian (i.e., subjective/judgmental) approach to modeling uncertainty; a formal distinction between the "aloof" risks of insurance and the "non-aloof" risks of other financial markets; and a personalized scientific method emphasizing randomized controlled studies, mathematical and game-theoretic modeling, and statistical simulation.^[7]

Career

Powers was appointed Deputy Insurance Commissioner for the

Fox School of Business in 1990, and moved to Tsinghua University in 2011. In 2013, he succeeded Professor David Daokui Li as chair of Tsinghua’s finance department, serving in that position until 2015.^[10]

Books

The Political Economy of Chinese Finance, 2016, co-edited with J. Jay Choi and Xiaotian Tina Zhang, Emerald Group Publishing, Bingley, UK.[11]
Acts of God and Man: Ruminations on Risk and Insurance, 2012, Columbia University Press, New York.^[12]
Icons, 2003, Dry Bones Press, San Francisco (science-fiction/fantasy novel).^[13]
Global Risk Management: Financial, Operational, and Insurance Strategies, 2002, co-edited with J. Jay Choi, JAI Press/Elsevier, Amsterdam.^[14]
The Economics and Politics of Choice No-Fault Insurance, 2001, co-edited with Edward L. Lascher, Jr., Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston.^[15]

Education

Powers received his B.S. in Applied Mathematics, summa cum laude, from Yale University and his Ph.D. in Statistics from Harvard University. At Harvard, he wrote his dissertation under the direction of John W. Pratt.^[16]

Other activities

During the

Huffington Post,^[19] and is a regular panelist on China Radio International's Biz Today and World Today programs.^[20]

References

^ See http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15366-9/acts-of-god-and-man.
^ See http://www.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/powers.
^ 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.
^ Powers, M. R., 2015, "Paradox-Proof Utility Functions for Heavy-Tailed Payoffs: Two Instructive Two-Envelope Problems," Risks, 3, 1, 26-34.
^ 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://www.scienceofrisk.com/.
^ See http://www.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/powers.
^ Powers, M. R., 1992, "Equity in Automobile Insurance: Optional No-Fault," Journal of Risk and Insurance, 59, 2, 203-220.
^ See http://www.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/powers.
^ See https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/doi/10.1108/S1569-3767201617.
^ See http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15366-9/acts-of-god-and-man.
^ See https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1931333262.
^ See https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/doi/10.1016/S1569-3767(2002)3.
^ See https://www.springer.com/business+%26+management/book/978-0-7923-7467-1?cm_cmm=sgw-_-ps-_-book-_-0-7923-7467-3.
^ See http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=103799.
^ See https://www.politico.com/story/2008/09/mccain-and-the-politics-of-mortality-013096 .
^ See http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2008/09/the_theology_of_sarah_palin.html.
^ See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-r-powers.
^ See https://www.facebook.com/chinaplusnews/videos/five-takeaways-from-premier-lis-press-conference/585347141984469/.

External links

[1] See http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15366-9/acts-of-god-and-man.

[2] See http://www.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/powers.

[3] Powers, M. R., 1995, "A Theory of Risk, Return, and Solvency," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, 17, 2, 101-118.

[4] 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.

[5] Powers, M. R., 2015, "Paradox-Proof Utility Functions for Heavy-Tailed Payoffs: Two Instructive Two-Envelope Problems," Risks, 3, 1, 26-34.

[6] 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.

[7] See http://www.scienceofrisk.com/.

[8] See http://www.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/powers.

[9] Powers, M. R., 1992, "Equity in Automobile Insurance: Optional No-Fault," Journal of Risk and Insurance, 59, 2, 203-220.

[10] See http://www.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/powers.

[11] See https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/doi/10.1108/S1569-3767201617.

[12] See http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15366-9/acts-of-god-and-man.

[13] See https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1931333262.

[14] See https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/doi/10.1016/S1569-3767(2002)3.

[15] See https://www.springer.com/business+%26+management/book/978-0-7923-7467-1?cm_cmm=sgw-_-ps-_-book-_-0-7923-7467-3.

[16] See http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=103799.

[17] See https://www.politico.com/story/2008/09/mccain-and-the-politics-of-mortality-013096 .

[18] See http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2008/09/the_theology_of_sarah_palin.html.

[19] See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-r-powers.

[20] See https://www.facebook.com/chinaplusnews/videos/five-takeaways-from-premier-lis-press-conference/585347141984469/.

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