W. Kip Viscusi is University Distinguished Professor in the Owen Graduate School of Management, Department of Economics, and Law School at Vanderbilt University. Until 2007, he was the John F. Cogan Jr. Professor of Law and Economics and Director of the Program on Empirical Legal Studies at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and he has also served as the Allen Professor of Economics at Duke University, Professor of Economics at Northwestern University, Olin Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago, and Deputy Director of the Council of Wage and Price Stability in the Carter White House.

Professor Viscusi is the Founding Editor of both the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty and Foundations and Trends: Microeconomics. His books include Rational Risk Policy, Economics of Regulation and Antitrust, and Smoke-Filled Rooms: A Postmortem on the Tobacco Deal, and he is the recipient of the Kulp-Wright Award for Outstanding Book on Risk and Insurance from the American Risk & Insurance Association (1992, 1993, 1994, and 2000) and the Mehr Article Award.