a few recent graduates
Chemistry/Biochemistry
Environmental Studies
Geography
Geology

Edouard von Herberstein, M.S.

Advisor: Roger Pielke, Jr., Environmental Studies
Funding: ICAT Managers, Boulder CO

Hurricane Risk Pricing, Catastrophe Models, and Data Quality: Why it Matters and What Should be Done about it?

This thesis focused on the role of catastrophe models in the decision-making processes of insurance and reinsurance companies. Specifically, it focused on the value of accurate empirical data, e.g., on structure type, construction, and location for setting insurance and reinsurance rates. This information is important because the collection of such data can be costly and catastrophe models are now so sophisticated that accurate collection of all data possible as inputs is cost prohibitive. This thesis developed and applied a methodology for determining what data would be significant to collect as measured by its impact on catastrophe model output.