RISK MANAGEMENT
While the field of risk analysis has grown dramatically over the past several decades, there remains a substantial gap between theoretical advances in risk and uncertainty assessment and effective application to real world policy. Current research at Resources for the Future works to bridge this gap, focusing on the methodology of quantifying and communicating uncertainty, and its application to policy challenges.
Methodological research focuses on areas like structured expert judgment, modeling risk dependencies, and the use Bayesian belief nets to provide a graphical visualization of uncertainty and its linkages. These techniques are being applied to illuminate policy challenges related to air pollution regulation, food safety, invasive species, civil aviation, and the transmission of diseases from wildlife to humans.