Dr Dan Thompson

Leveraging disaster insurance and financial instruments as policy tools to reduce disaster risk

Supervisor: Gianluca Pescaroli and Rozana Himaz
Funding: Self-funded
Email: daniel.thompson.21@ucl.ac.uk

Using theoretical models and empirical studies, my prospective project seeks to explore and test how insurance and financial instruments can incentivize disaster risk reduction activities in areas with the highest levels of expected losses over the next several decades. Currently, I am exploring how hazard-specific insurance models and markets like the Catastrophe (CAT) Bond market could incentivize disaster reduction activities, in addition to their existing abilities to enhance financial protection. Given my concerns about the cultural sensitivity of effective policymaking, financial and otherwise, I anticipate that most of my geographical scope will concentrate on different parts of the western hemisphere to enhance the potential efficacy of these programs.