2024 Academy Award for Research
American Academy of Actuaries
Announces Second Annual Award
for Outstanding Public Policy Research from an Actuarial Perspective
by an Early-Career Scholar
January 1, 2024
The American Academy of Actuaries Award for Research recognizes an early-career scholar whose work contributes significantly to an actuarial perspective on a public policy issue of interest to U.S. actuaries and public policymakers. The American Academy of Actuaries Research Committee invites submissions for consideration by March 31, 2024. A winner of the Award will be announced during the summer of 2024.
The Award will include a monetary prize of $7,500 and presentations of the work—either in person or virtually—at the Academy’s Annual Meeting in October in Washington, D.C., and/or at the Actuarial Research Conference in July at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Each year, the Award is devoted to research on a particular theme with broad applicability across different policymaking and regulatory environments and across actuarial practice areas. For 2024, the Award theme is:
“Insights from Behavioral Economics/Behavioral Finance
for Insurance, Retirement, and Risk Management.”1
Possible Areas of Research:
- Use of behavioral economics to design financial products;
- Use of behavioral economics to investigate decision-making by individuals in retirement planning or insurance purchase;
- Use of behavioral economics to design actions by regulators or companies to improve outcomes for consumers; and/or
- Guardrails for the use of behavioral economics necessary to reduce the likelihood of inappropriate uses.
1 Note: References to behavioral economics include behavioral finance and other related behavioral disciplines. We encourage applications from all related disciplines, and research based on either empirical or experimental analysis is welcomed.
Examples of More Specific Research Topics Under This Theme:
- Applying behavioral economics concepts in corporate and/or individual decisions, such as what risks to insure or how much insurance to maintain;
- Utilization of behavioral economics by corporations and/or individuals in risk management decisions, including strategies for risk mitigation;
- Examining the application of behavioral economics in decisions by retirement plan sponsors and/or retirement plan participants, ranging from plan design to benefit distribution;
- Investigating limitations of behavioral economics, considering concerns about manipulation, consequences, and side effects; and
- Exploring new developments in behavioral economics with implications for actuarial practice, for insurance and for public policies.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible, submissions must meet the following criteria:
- Should be related to this year’s theme.
- Publication Type: o Publications in peer-reviewed journals;
- Papers or articles accepted for publication but not yet published;
- Ph.D. or other thesis chapters; or
- Other rigorous published research.
- Publication Date: Publications, articles, and other publication types mentioned above published or accepted for publication since January 1, 2022; for Ph.D. thesis chapters, chapters from theses accepted by the Ph.D. committee as fulfilling the requirement of the degree, or thesesleading to the awarding of degrees since January 1, 2022;
- Education: Authored by an early career scholar, defined as:
- Ph.D.s who have received their degrees within the previous five calendar years (e.g., for the 2024 Award, 2019–2023); or
- Those currently enrolled or enrolled within the previous five calendar years in a Ph.D. program; or those whose highest academic degree was awarded within the previous five calendar years.
- Subject Matter: The subject matter of the research relates to an issue of insurance or financial risk of interest to United States public policymakers, regulators, orinterested stakeholders.
- Actuarial Perspective: The analysis presented is clearly actuarial in perspective. Factorsto be considered for this criterion are:
- Most importantly, the nature of the work, and whether it reflects the careful attention to factors such as data quality, statistical, mathematical and logical analysis, and financial risk characteristic of actuarial work; and
- The Ph.D. degree (or highest degree obtained), and whether it was or will be awarded by a Department of Actuarial Science, or in a broader field (e.g., Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Public Policy) with a concentration or significant focus on actuarial science or its equivalent; and/or 1850 MSTREETNW SUITE 300 WASHINGTON, DC20036 TEL. 202-223-8196 FAX. 202-872-1948 ACTUARY.ORG
- Whether the submitting researcher, their coauthors, or their supervising faculty advisers are members of an actuarial association or have made contributions to the actuarial literature.
- Country of Residence: Subject to meeting the other criteria, anyone in any country may submit an article or thesis chapter for consideration.
- Deadline: Submitted by March 31, 2024.
If you believe that you have an article or thesis chapter that ought to be considered as:- an actuarial perspective related to behavioral economics;
- with relevance to United States public policymaking;
- by an early career scholar;
but are unsure whether the eligibility criteria as specified have been met, please contact Steve Jackson (sjackson@actuary.org) to discuss.
To submit, please complete the online submission form.
All submissions will be acknowledged soon after receipt. Finalists for the Award will be notified in May, with a winner notified in June. Arrangements will then be discussed for presentation of the winning research at the Actuarial Research Conference in July and/or at the Academy’s annual meeting in October. The Academy will cover reasonable travel expenses.
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1 Note: References to behavioral economics include behavioral finance and other related behavioral disciplines. We encourage applications from all related disciplines, and research based on either empirical or experimental analysis is welcomed.