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Hurricane recovery in the spotlight

Oct. 24, 2008

KALAMAZOO--Hurricane recovery will be the topic when Dr. Jamie Kruse, an expert on the economic impact of such disasters, speaks Wednesday, Oct. 29, at Western Michigan University.

Kruse is director of both the Center for Natural Hazards Research and the RENCI Center for Coastal Systems Informatics and is a professor of economics at East Carolina University. Her talk, titled "Hurricane Recovery: Responsibility and Financing," will take place from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in 3508 Knauss Hall and is free and open to the public.

Kruse's presentation is part of the Werner Sichel Lecture-Seminar Series, which this year is focusing on the economic impacts generated by both natural and man-made disasters and the policy options that might reduce our vulnerability to these events.

Kruse's research has focused on the economic impacts of natural hazards and disasters on housing, labor and insurance markets. She has been a member of the department of economics and the Center for Natural Hazards Research since 2004.

Kruse previously held faculty positions at the University of Colorado and Texas Tech University. In 2001-02, she was a visiting professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. In addition to her academic positions, she has also been a fellow at the FDIC Center for Financial Research.

Kruse earned her doctoral degree from the University of Arizona and has been the author of more than 60 articles appearing in such journals as the Rand Journal of Economics, Econometrica, Southern Economic Journal, Natural Hazards Review, Weather and Forecasting and Journal of Risk and Insurance, as well as numerous technical reports for agencies including the U.S. Department of Commerce's Windstorm Mitigation Initiative, the Department of Energy and FDIC.

She was guest editor of the Hurricane Katrina Symposium published in the October 2007 issue of the Southern Economic Journal.

Now entering its 45th year, the annual Sichel Series is organized by the WMU Department of Economics and named in honor of longtime WMU economics professor, Dr. Werner Sichel, who retired in 2004. The series is cosponsored by the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

Media contact: Mark Schwerin, (269) 387-8400, mark.schwerin@wmich.edu

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