emlyon and Groupama launch the “Climate Risk and Property Insurance” research chair

The “Climate Risk and Property Insurance” chair is part of the QUANT research center of emlyon business school. Its works cover all aspects of mathematical modeling applied to economic and management sciences, with two major questions regarding property hazards:

• Can we model them as such, and if so, how?
• Can we model them as consequences of climate evolutions?

Both endogenous and exogenous modeling are to be designed in a context of environmental instability. The ability to model risks depends on the ability to manage them, and consequently, on the ability to continue to provide an insurance coverage to individuals, companies and farms. Indeed, providing this service cannot become a net source of costs for insurers, in a context of withdrawal from re-insurers.

Redefining underlying risk structure - their potential instability and their non-linearity - shall obviously go hand-in-hand with redefining contracts. This can be achieved by redefining the risks covered, based on deductible modifications, prevention, etc. In any case, modeling reconstruction and pricing taking into account climate hazards need to be associated with the reconstruction of the protection offer.

For four years, the chair's purpose will be to provide research output leading to scientific publications, to organize seminars on these subjects and general-public events.

Professor in Finance and Insurance at emlyon business school, Olivier Le Courtois specializes in probabilities and analysis applied to modeling in finance, insurance and economy.

Former student of the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, with a French “agrégation” in physics, and a doctorate with an Authorization to Direct Research in management science. As an actuary, he is a “Fellow of the Society of Actuaries”, he holds several certifications, accounts for a long experience in consulting and published many research articles in academic journals.

Professor in mathematical finance at emlyon business school, Lorenz Schneider has been a professor at the Technical University of Munich as part of the prestigious programs August-Wilhelm Scheer and KPMG.

He worked as a quantitative analyst on raw materials and hybrid derivatives at Dresdner Kleinwort in the “Square Mile” of London. He holds a doctorate in mathematics from the université Paris VI Pierre et Marie Curie and an Authorization to Direct Research from the université d'Aix-Marseille. He was published in numerous international academic journals.