Surfers, studs and sex workers to be discussed as risk takers during lecture
Allison Schrager, an economist, journalist at Quartz and co-founder of a risk advisory firm, will present the lecture “Managing Risk in a More Uncertain World: What We Can Learn From Surfers, Studs, and Sex Workers.”
February 16, 2020
Iowa State’s economic department and club will host a lecture on risk management from the perspective of uncommon risk takers.
Allison Schrager, an economist, journalist at Quartz and co-founder of a risk advisory firm, will present the lecture “Managing Risk in a More Uncertain World: What We Can Learn From Surfers, Studs and Sex Workers” at 7 p.m. Monday in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.
The event is free and is open to students, faculty, staff and Ames community members.
“She has spent her career examining how people manage risk in their lives and careers and will discuss five principles for dealing with risk shared by some of the world’s most interesting risk-takers,” according to the Lecture Series website.
The lecture will relate the risk management in finance to the risk management taken by “surfers, studs and sex workers.”
Schrager is the author of the “Financial Times” April book of the month, “An Economist Walks Into a Brothel.” She correlates economic theories of uncertainty and risk to the risk in people’s own lives by looking at uncommon risk takers.
In “An Economist Walks into a Brothel,” Schrager equips readers with five principles for dealing with risk, principles used by some of the world’s most interesting risk takers.
For instance, she interviews a professional poker player about how to stay rational when the stakes are high; a paparazzo in Manhattan about how to spot different kinds of risk; horse breeders in Kentucky about how to diversify risk and minimize losses; and a war general who led troops in Iraq about how to prepare for what we don’t see coming.
“Allison diversified her career by working in finance, policy and media,” according to Schrager’s website. “She led retirement product innovation at Dimensional Fund Advisers and consulted to international organizations, including the OECD and IMF.”
She has been a regular contributor to the Economist, Reuters and Bloomberg Businessweek. Her writing has also appeared in Playboy, Wired, National Review and Foreign Affairs. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Edinburgh and a holds a doctorate in economics from Columbia University. She teaches at New York University within the economics department and lives in New York City.
This lecture is sponsored by the Economics Department, Economics Club and the Committee on Lectures.
