Business

The Wharton School’s Carolyn Kousky said that instead of focusing on risk reduction, the federal government spends 90 percent of flood mitigation funding after disasters occur.

The Wharton School’s Howard Kunreuther explained the ebb and flow of flood insurance coverage. Residents tend to buy policies after disasters only to cancel after a few years, at which point unused policies may feel like unnecessary expenses, said Kunreuther.

Victor Pickard of the Annenberg School for Communication discussed the merger, saying that “media ownership concentration is dangerous for our democracy … Americans are still very reliant on local television news.”

Researchers at the Wharton School found that men who were given doses of testosterone expressed more interest in high-status goods. However, the study authors also noted that “status signals are not universal” and that results may vary between cultures.

A study co-authored by researchers at the Wharton School found that men, and likely women, too, are influenced by hormones when shopping.

The Wharton School’s Lawton R. Burns offered commentary on PillPack’s recent acquisition by Amazon. “It gives me pause thinking about what's going to drastically change here,” said Burns.

The Wharton School’s Susan Wachter spoke about changes in the real estate market. “All the growth in housing new sales is in the South, where housing is affordable,” said Wachter.

The Wharton School’s Ann Harrison said, of the differences between the United States and China’s approaches to industrial policy, “we’re not supporting emerging industries. We’re bailing out failing industries.”

PIK Professor Herbert Hovenkamp expressed discomfort with setbacks to antitrust law in the wake of AT&T’s merger with Time Warner.

The Wharton School’s Ron Berman said of the vaping industry’s scholarship efforts, “This is almost a backdoor way to get your name on a university website, and from the point of view of the student it would look like the university is supporting this effort.”