Volatility and Risk Institute

OUR MISSION

The Volatility and Risk Institute is an interdisciplinary center for research and analysis of financial and nonfinancial risks. It serves as a designated hub to support risk-related research and collaboration among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. It supports, promotes, and facilitates risk analysis, assessment, and measurement, and creates a bridge between faculty research and a specialized group of practitioners and market participants on the cutting-edge of real-world risk issues. To assess and analyze these risks, we are employing new data and analytical tools including those from data science and a wide range of machine learning technologies. Our Faculty Board is composed of members from the Tandon School of Engineering, the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, the Wilf Family Department of Politics in the Faculty of Arts & Science, the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, the School of Global Public Health, the Law School, and the Stern School of Business. Our focus is on newly emerging forms of risk including climate risk, geopolitical risk, cyber risk, more recently pandemic risk, as well as new topics in financial risk.

SECOND ANNUAL VOLATILITY AND RISK INSTITUTE CONFERENCE

Registration is now open for the Second Annual Volatility and Risk Institute Conference, "A Financial Risk Framework For Climate Change: Portfolio Construction, Stress Testing, and Risk Transfer," which will take place via Zoom on Friday, April 30, 2021 from 9:00am to 3:00pm EDT.

Climate risks are forcing repricing of financial assets.  This conference will seek to address and possibly answer several questions that arise from those changes:

• What are the implications for portfolio construction and investment management?
• What risks can be detected by climate stress tests of financial institutions? 
• What is the role for disclosure regulation?
• Can we launch financial instruments and markets in which to trade them to facilitate price discovery and risk transfer? 
• Are these changes in asset prices sufficient to internalize the externalities of GHG emissions and lead us to net zero emissions?  If not, what policy actions are needed or possible?

The full conference program and theme can be found on our conference page.