Mary Weiss

Mary A. Weiss, Ph.D. is Deaver Professor of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management at the Fox School of Business and Management of Temple University. She is a Past President of the premier insurance academic organization in the U.S., the American Risk and Insurance Association (ARIA) and the prestigious Risk Theory Society.

Dr. Weiss is Editor of Risk Management and Insurance Review and a Co-Editor for the Journal of Risk and Insurance. Her research, consisting of over 30 articles, has focused on financial services conglomeration, efficiency measurement of insurers, no-fault automobile insurance, reinsurance, regulation, and underwriting cycles. Her research has appeared in the Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Business, Management Science, The Journal of Financial Intermediation, The Journal of Risk and Insurance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance Theory, and Contingencies. Her articles have received awards from The Journal of Risk and Insurance, the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) and The Journal of Financial Intermediation. Mary has made numerous research presentations at the Annual Meeting of the American Risk and Insurance Association.

Her research also has been presented at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Brookings Institution, the Casualty Actuarial Society, Risk Theory Society, the Financial Management Association, the Western Economic Association, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Atlantic Economic Society, the Allied Social Sciences Association, and at conferences sponsored by the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and New York. She obtained her Ph.D. degree at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and has been on the faculty of Temple University since 1986. She was a Visiting Scholar at the Wharton School (2004-2006) and was selected as 2004 Distinguished Huebner Alumnus, Huebner Foundation, Wharton School. She served as a Distinguished Scholar at the NAIC’s Center for Insurance Policy & Research (a think tank) in 2009-2010.

Sample Publications

• “Systemic Risk and the US. Insurance Sector,” forthcoming in The Journal of Risk and Insurance, With J. David Cummins.
• “Systemic Risk and the Inter-Connectedness Between Banks and Insurers: An Econometric Analysis,” forthcoming in The Journal of Risk and Insurance. With Hua Chen, J. David Cummins, and Krupa S. Viswanathan.
• “The Pension Option in Labor Insurance and Precautionary Savings: Evidence from Taiwan,” forthcoming in The Journal of Risk and Insurance. With Hua Chen and Wenyen Hsu.
• “The Satellite Insurance Market and Underwriting Cycles,” The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, 38 (September): 148-127. With Piotr Manikowski.
• “Risk-Based Capital and Firm Risk Taking in Property-Liability Insurance,” Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance: Issues and Practices, Vol. 38, April 2013, 274-307. With Jiang Cheng.
• “The Role of RBC, Hurricane Exposure, Bond Portfolio Duration, and Macroeconomic and Industry-wide Factors in Property-Liability Insolvency Prediction,” The Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 79 (3), September 2012, 723-750. With Jiang Cheng.
• “Cyclicality or Volatility, The Satellite Insurance Market,” Space Policy, Vol 28 (3), August 2012, 192-198.
• “Characteristics of U.S. Self-Insurers for Workers’ Compensation Losses,” Journal of Insurance Regulation, V 30 (Winter 2011), 139-170. With Musheng Chang.
• “Capital Structure in the Property-Liability Insurance Industry: Tests of the Tradeoff and Pecking Order Theories,” Journal of Insurance Issues, 35 (1), 2012, 1-43. With Jiang Cheng.
• “The Effects of Regulated Premium Subsidies on Insurance Costs: An Empirical Analysis of Automobile Insurance,” The Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 77, No. 3, September 2010, 597-624. With Laureen Regan and Sharon Tennyson.
• “Economies of Scope in Financial Services: A DEA Efficiency Analysis of the US Insurance Industry,” Journal of Banking & Finance, Vol. 34, No. 7, July 2010, 1525-1539. With J.D. Cummins, Xiaoying Xie, and Hongmin Zi.
• “Securitization, Insurance and Reinsurance,” The Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 76, No. 3, September 2009, 493-545. With J. D. Cummins.
• “Introduction to Symposium “U.S. Insurance Regulation: What Have We Learned, Where Do We Go,” Journal of Insurance Regulation, Vol. 28, No. 1, Fall 2009, 19-24. With Terri Vaughan

Awards and Honors

• Included in Who’s Who in America, 2013
• Visiting Scholar, National Cheng-Chi University, Taipei, Taiwan, June 15-June 22, 2012.
• President, Risk Theory Society, April 2012 – April 2013
• Distinguished Scholar, National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010.
• President, American Risk and Insurance Association, Aug. 2007 – Aug. 2008.
• President-Elect, American Risk and Insurance Association, Aug. 2006 – Aug. 2007.
• Vice-President, American Risk and Insurance Association, Aug. 2005 – Aug. 2006.
• 2004 Robert I. Mehr Award for “The Stochastic Dominance of No-Fault Automobile Insurance,” for article published in The Journal of Risk and Insurance ten years ago that has best stood the test of time. (JRI’s most prestigious award.) (With J.D. Cummins)

Teaching

• Risk Financing (Undergraduate)
• Derivatives Markets (Masters and undergraduate)
• Principles of Micro and Macro Economics for Actuaries, (Masters and undergraduate)
• Principles of Corporate Finance for Actuaries, (Masters and undergraduate)
• Advanced Risk Management and International Insurance (MBA and undergraduate)
• Doctoral Seminar Course in Property & Liability Insurance Markets
• Risk Management, (undergraduate)
• International Risk Management and Insurance (MBA)
• International Business Risk Management (MBA)
• Employee Benefits, (undergraduate)
• Insurance Company Finances and Operations, (MBA and undergraduate)
• Actuarial Applications in Risk Management and Insurance, (MBA and undergraduate)