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Insurance Economics and Actuarial Analytics

About the Program

The Wisconsin PhD Program in insurance economics and actuarial analytics is offered by the Risk and Insurance Department at the Wisconsin School of Business. We are a nationally recognized Center of Actuarial Excellence. We have received grants to support a variety of industry-related research projects and the introduction of our Technology-Enhanced Learning initiative.

Core Areas of Research

Student research is supported by faculty in four core areas:

Actuarial science

Risk management

Insurance

Decision-making under risk and uncertainty

Academic Requirements

All students must meet the general PhD requirements of both the UW–Madison Graduate School and the Wisconsin School of Business. Applicants to the program should have the following:

  • A strong mathematics and statistics background. We generally look for three semesters of calculus and linear algebra at a minimum for mathematics. For statistics training, we look for coursework covering applied regression models in statistics and/or econometrics.
  • A background in some combination of economics/finance, insurance, actuarial science, and statistics.

Program Coursework

The course sequence for PhD students in insurance economics and actuarial analytics is customized to fit each student’s unique research interests and background.

You will work with a PhD faculty advisor to set an appropriate course sequence during your first two years of study. However, all students are expected to take the following minimum core course sequence:

Two semesters of PhD-level Microeconomic Theory

Two semesters of PhD-level Econometrics

Panel-data statistics/econometrics

Seminar in Actuarial Science, Risk Management, and Insurance I

Seminar in Actuarial Science, Risk Management, and Insurance II

Faculty Research Interests

Daniel Bauer

Daniel Bauer

Research interests:

  • Risk evaluation
  • Quantitative finance
  • Risk management
  • Insurance economics
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Stuart Vincent Craig

Stuart Craig

Research interests:

  • Industrial organization of health care and health insurance markets
  • Employer-sponsored health insurance
  • Business-to-business price setting
  • Applied econometrics
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Ty Leverty

Tyler Leverty

Research interests:

  • Economics of insurance markets
  • Insurance company operations
  • Insurance regulation
  • Public policy issues in insurance
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Anita Mukherjee

Anita Mukherjee

Research interests:

  • Insurance markets
  • Development economics
  • Law and economics
  • Psychology and economics
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Philip Mulder

Philip Mulder

Research interests:

  • Climate finance
  • Disaster insurance
  • Real estate and household finance
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Margie Rosenberg

Marjorie Rosenberg

Research interests:

  • Applications of statistics and actuarial science
  • Bayesian methodology related to health insurance
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Peng Shi

Peng Shi

Research interests:

  • Predictive modeling
  • Multivariate regression models
  • Longitudinal/panel data
  • Asymmetric information in insurance
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Dan Sacks

Dan Sacks

Research interests:

  • Social insurance, including Social Security and the Affordable Care Act
  • Health insurance, moral hazard, and adverse selection
  • Applied econometrics
  • Industrial organization
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Justin Sydnor

Justin Sydnor

Research interests:

  • Psychology and economics
  • Applied microeconomics
  • Behavioral industrial organization
  • Insurance markets
  • Decision-making under risk
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Connect With Current Students

We encourage you to contact our doctoral students in actuarial science, risk management, and insurance to hear their perspectives on the Wisconsin PhD Program.

View current student profiles

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See Our Placement Results

Graduates of our PhD specialization in actuarial science, risk management, and insurance have accepted tenure-track positions at top research universities.

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Contact Us

Dan Sacks

Dan Sacks

Associate Professor
Risk and Insurance