Richard Jay Zeckhauser

 

Academic Positions

Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (Professor, 1972-present; Associate Professor, 1970-72; Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, 1968-70).

Faculty Associate: Eliot House, Business and Government Center, Center for Research on Nonprofit Organizations, Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University.

Member of Executive Committee: University Committee on Environment

Member: University Committee on Higher Degrees in Health Policy, Harvard University.

Associate, Center for Risk Analysis, Harvard School of Public Health.

Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research.

Affiliate, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Financial Institutions Center.

Visiting Scholar, Columbia University.

Member, OECD High Level Advisory Board on Financial Management of Large-Scale Catastrophes.

Member, World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Mitigation of Natural Disasters.

Co-Editor or Associate Editor: Journal of Risk and Uncertainty; International Journal of Economic Theory and Policy; Journal of the Economics of Business; Regulation; Review of Economics and Statistics; Journal of Risk and Insurance; and Risk, Decision and Policy.

Editorial Advisory Board: Regulation Studies, MIT Press; Insurance Studies, Huebner Foundation; Insurance Information Institute Press.

 

Honors

Elected member of Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Fellow, Association for Public Policy and Management.

Fellow, Econometric Society.

Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

 

Recent Prizes and Awards

2009 Most Influential Course Award, Harvard Kennedy School.

2008 Raymond Vernon Prize for Mentorship, Harvard Kennedy School.

2008 Lee Kwan Yew Distinguished Visitor, Singapore.

2008 Winner, National Institute of Health Care Management Best Paper Award.

Ronald H. Coase Prize, 2006, University of Chicago Law School.

 

Courses of Instruction

Analytic Frameworks for Policy (Kennedy School of Government).

Ph.D. Dissertation Writing Course (Kennedy School of Government).

 

Higher Education

Ph.D. in Economics, Harvard University, September, 1968.

Junior Fellowship, Society of Fellows, June, 1965 to June, 1968.

A.B. in Economics, Harvard College, summa cum laude, June, 1962.

 

Current Research Projects

2 + 2 = 5: Private Roles to Lift Public Goals (with John Donahue).

Axioms and Algorithms for Reputation Systems, National Science Foundation support.

Recommender and Reputation Systems, National Science Foundation support.

 

Outside Activities

Trustee, The Commonwealth School, 1994-present. Executive Committee, 1996-present.

Consultant to the World Bank, 2009 (global warming).

National Board Member, Common Cause, 1993-1999.

Member of the Corporation, The Winsor School, 1986-1999.

Member, Russell Sage Roundtable in Behavioral Economics, 1993-present.

Commissioner, Group Insurance Commission, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1993-2005.

Academic Advisory Committee, American Enterprise Institute, 1997-present.

Principal, Equity Resource Investments, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006-present.

Founder, Director, and Principal, Niederhoffer, Cross and Zeckhauser, Inc., New York, (investment banking), 1967-84.

Director, Energy Recovery, Inc., Minneapolis (reverse osmosis pumps), 1985-1999 (sold to Procter & Gamble).

Director, Johnson-Grace, Inc., Newport Beach, California, (video compression), 1992-1996 (sold to AOL).

Director, Coupco, Inc., Philadelphia (electronic couponing), 1985-present.

Board Member, Rational Investors, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Internet financial planning), 1996-1999 (sold to Standard and Poors).