W. Kip Viscusi

University Distinguished Professor of Law, Economics and Management

Subject Area(s): Ethics and Social Responsibility, Strategy and Business Economics

W. Kip Viscusi is Vanderbilt University's first University Distinguished Professor, with primary appointments in the Owen Graduate School of Management and the Department of Economics as well as the Law School. Professor Viscusi came to Vanderbilt from Harvard Law School, where he was the John F. Cogan Jr. Professor of Law and Economics and Director of the Program on Empirical Legal Studies. He has also held positions as the Allen Professor of Economics at Duke University, Professor of Economics at Northwestern Univesity, and the Olin Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago.

Viscusi is the award-winning author of more than 20 books and 250 articles, most concerned with different aspects of health and safety risk. His research focuses on individual and societal responses to risk and uncertainty, and he is widely regarded as one of the world's leading authorities on cost-benefit analysis. Viscusi's estimates of the value of risks to life and health have become the standard used throughout the federal government. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the U.S. Department of Justice on issues pertaining to the valuation of life and health. He was deputy director of the Council of Wage and Price Stability in the Carter administration. He served on the Science Advisory Board of the EPA for seven years and currently serves on the agency's Homeland Security Committee.

He is the founding editor of the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, which he continues to publish at Vanderbilt, and has served on the editorial boards of a dozen other journals. He is co-author of Economics of Regulation and Antitrust and wrote Smoke-Filled Rooms: A Postmortem on the Tobacco Deal.

Education:
Ph.D., A.M. & A.B., Economcis, Harvard University
M.P.P., Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Research Interest(s):
Regulation of health, safety, and environmental risks; tort reform; risk and insurance; law and economics