GDP Center Hosts Book Talk With Frank Ackerman
The Global Development Policy (GDP) Center, an affiliated center of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, recently hosted Frank Ackerman, principal economist at Synapse Energy and Research Fellow at the Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI), for a talk about his new book Worst-Case Economics: Extreme Events in Climate and Finance.
Ackerman, whose extensive research and writing focus on climate change and energy, environmental policy and cost-benefit analysis, spoke about his new book which examines what it takes to respond to the extreme risks posed by climate and finance.
In the book, Ackerman argues that while the causes of climate and financial extremes are distinct, the implications for public policy have much in common. The frequency of extreme events, of varying sizes, means that there is no way to predict the likely size of future crises.
Ackerman said that traditional approaches to risk aversion cannot account for longstanding patterns in financial markets. Better theories of risk call for more precautionary approaches to both financial and climate policy.
If you missed Ackerman’s presentation at the GDP Center, you can watch the entire talk and presentation here.