This week, we had a busy lab seminar. First, three PhD students - Tom Cromsjo and Kevin Cao in ARE, and Wantong Yuan in ESP - presented 5 minute egg-timer style presentations detailing their in-progress work. These short talks were a resounding success, and we will continue this new Lab format with another egg timer session later in the quarter. 

Then, ARE PhD candidate Wenjie Zhan presented joint work with Mengfei Zhou and Michael Springborn, entitled "The Impact of Wildfires on Home Insurance Markets." Wenjie and his coauthors examine the impact of wildfires on the home insurance market in California. Leveraging the timing and intensity of fire occurrences, they estimate that average insurance premiums increase, the number of insured housing units decreases, and the average insurance coverage increases for owner-occupied insurance policies following a major wildfire event. They then present suggestive evidence that both increasing insurance demand and reducing insurance supply contribute to higher premiums, which disproportionately push low-income households out of the market and leave more of them uninsured.