TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Wenan Fei, who received his doctoral degree in economics in May from The University of Alabama, has been awarded the highly prestigious 2007 Ernst Meyer Prize by the Geneva Association for the best dissertation in the area of risk management and insurance.
“This is a world-wide competition,” said Dr. Harris Schlesinger, UA professor of finance and Frank Park Samford Chair of Insurance. “Past winners include, among many others, Christian Gollier, professor of economics at the University of Toulouse, and Amy Finkelstein, associate professor of economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was recently profiled by BusinessWeek because of her work in healthcare economics.”
Schlesinger, who nominated Fei for the award, said Fei will share the prize as co-winner for 2007.
“I think this is quite an honor, and it also speaks very well for the University,” Schlesinger said. “His dissertation, ‘Secondary Risks in Insurance Markets,’ was one of the best I have directed since arriving at UA in 1987.”
The prize is presented for research work, usually in the form of a doctoral thesis, which makes a significant and original contribution to the study of risk and insurance economics.
The Geneva Association was established to promote economic research in the sector of risk and insurance.
The Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration was established in 1919 and, in 1929, became the 38th school to earn admission into the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. The excellence of the UA business school has been acknowledged on a national level. The undergraduate program is ranked 38th among public universities by U.S. News, and Culverhouse School of Accountancy is ranked 15th among public universities by U.S. News. The graduate accounting program is ranked 15th and the undergraduate program 14th by Public Accounting Report.
Contact
Bill Gerdes, UA Public Relations, 205/348-8318, bgerdes@cba.ua.edu