USC Marshall Hosts Public Policy Symposium
USC Marshall School of Business marketing faculty members David Stewart and Michael Kamins will join senior colleagues from leading business schools to host a workshop at USC focusing on research in the public policy arena.
The goal of “Research in Risk: Public Policy and Social Dimensions,” at the University Park Campus June 5-8, is to facilitate the creation of marketing research on a diverse range of topics, including financial risk, health-care prevention measures and environmental risks.
Stewart and Kamins said they hope the conference will help new doctoral students and faculty members early in their careers to understand the nuances that influence behavior and use them in a way to help shape public policy.
The workshop will be led by distinguished researchers presenting their latest research. Participants will have the opportunity to interact with these leaders as well as a number of other researchers in the areas of marketing, public policy and risk.
Among the presenters are Baruch Fischoff of Carnegie-Mellon University, Punam Keller from Dartmouth, Jane Pappalardo of the Federal Trade Commission and Jack Calfee of the American Enterprise Institute.
Stewart said there are many challenges facing public sector communications that require research by university faculty and doctoral candidates.
“From a policy perspective, how do you provide information about risk in a way that is constructive?” asked Stewart, who is the Booker Professor of Marketing and Chair of Marketing at USC Marshall. “We know that some warnings have the effect of discouraging people from behavior that actually reduces overall risk; for example, when parents decline to inoculate their children against various diseases because they fear the relatively uncommon side effects. These are the types of issues we hope to address.”
Kamins, an associate professor of marketing at USC Marshall, is a co-chair of the conference, along with Stewart and Ingrid Martin of Cal State Long Beach.
About 30 doctoral candidates and early career faculty members will attend the sessions, including scholars from Stanford, Duke, the University of Florida, UC Irvine, the University of Oregon, the London Business School, the University of Sidney and USC, among others.
