Professor
Department of Economics and Finance
Email:
lporth@uoguelph.ca
Lysa Porth
Previous to joining the University of Guelph and the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, Dr. Porth held the Guy Carpenter Research Chair in Agricultural Risk Management and Insurance and served as the Director of the Warren Centre for Actuarial Studies and Research. She is currently an adjunct Professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo.
Dr. Porth’s research covers a wide breadth of topics regarding product design and pricing, as well as risk modelling and business analytics pertaining to crop insurance, price insurance, revenue insurance, livestock insurance, weather insurance, and weather derivatives. Her research also focuses on new and innovative approaches to insurance, such as remote sensing. Her research “bridges the gap” and strengthens public-private partnerships to encourage more cooperation and dialogue among producer organizations, insurers and reinsurers, and provincial and federal governments. Much of her research has primarily focused on developing innovative risk management products to achieve more stable incomes for agricultural producers, as well as more efficient risk management solutions for agricultural producers in Canada, and the World.
Dr. Porth is involved in numerous research projects with the public and private sector. She has collaborated with all levels of government in Canada, including provincial crop insurance organizations, as well as provincial ministries and the federal government. She has also served as an academic advisor to the Federal, Provincial and Territorial (FPT) Minister’s Risk Management panel for policy-related discussions. Further, Dr. Porth is involved in a number of international research projects, focused on the US, Poland, Ukraine and China. She frequently collaborates with researchers at other universities, such as the University of Manitoba, University of Waterloo and University of Victoria, as well as researchers at other international universities, such as the Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences, and Nankai University.
Since 2014, Dr. Porth has served as a member of the Editorial Board for the Agriculture Finance Review Journal (Emerald Publishing). In addition, she is the co-Chair of the annual International Agricultural Risk, Finance and Insurance Conference (www.iarfic.org), and member of the Waterloo Research Institute in Insurance, Securities and Quantitative Finance (WatRISQ). Dr. Porth received the 2016 Casualty Actuarial Society Award for the most valuable paper published in 2015 by ARIA (either in the Journal of Risk and Insurance or Risk Management and Insurance Review) for the paper "Insurance Premium Calculation Using Credibility Analysis: An Example from Livestock Mortality Insurance" JRI, Volume 82, Issue 2, pages 341-357, June 2015, along with her co-authors Dr. Jeffrey Pai and Dr. Milton Boyd.
- Ph.D. (Specialization: Actuarial Science): Individual Interdisciplinary Program (IIP): Warren Centre for Actuarial Studies and Research, Asper School of Business, (AACSB), University of Manitoba, Canada.
- Master of Business Administration. (Specialization: Management Science). I.H. Asper School of Business, (AACSB), University of Manitoba, Canada.
- Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.). (Specialization: Finance and Actuarial Science). I.H. Asper School of Business, (AACSB), University of Manitoba, Canada.
Selected Publications
Xiao, Y., Wang, J., and Porth, L. 2016. A Bootstrap Approach for Pricing Crop Yield Insurance. China Agricultural Economic Review, forthcoming.
Weng, C., Porth, L., Tan, K.S., and Samaratunga, R. 2016. A Crop Insurance Reserve Fund Process Under a Public-Private Partnership Model. Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, forthcoming.
Porth, L., Boyd, M., and Pai, J. 2016. A New Insurance Portfolio Model for Improving Diversification Using Pooling and Selective Reinsurance: An Example from Crop Insurance. Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, forthcoming.
Lin, J., Boyd, M., Pai, J., Porth, L., Zhang, Q., and Wang, K. 2015. Factors affecting farmers’ willingness to purchase weather index insurance in the Hainan Province of China. Agriculture Finance Review 75(1), 103-113.
Porth, L., and K.S. Tan. 2015. Agricultural Insurance – More Room to Grow? The Actuary, Society of Actuaries, April/May 2015 Issue.
Porth, L., Zhu, W., Tan, K.S. 2014. A Credibility-based Erlang Mixture Model for Pricing Crop Reinsurance. Agriculture Finance Review, 64(2), 162-167.
Porth, L., Pai, J., and Boyd, M. 2014. A Portfolio Optimization Approach Using Combinatorics with a Genetic Algorithm for Developing a Reinsurance Model. Journal of Risk and Insurance, doi: 10.1111/jori.12037.
Pai, J., Boyd, M., and Porth, L. 2014. Using Credibility Analysis to Improve Insurance Premium Calculation: An Example from Livestock Mortality Insurance. Journal of Risk and Insurance, doi: 10.1111/jori.12024
Pai, J., Boyd, M., and Porth, L. 2013. Developing a Livestock Mortality Insurance Policy: Concepts and Challenges. Agriculture Finance Review, 73(2), 233-244.
Porth, L. 2013. Growth Potential. Canadian Underwriter, April 2013 Issue.
Boyd, M., Pai, J., and Porth, L. 2013. Crop Insurance in Canada: Background and Operation. Book Chapter.
Porth, L., Weng, C., and Tan, K.S. 2013. Optimal Reinsurance Analysis from a Crop Insurers Perspective. Agriculture Finance Review, 73(2), 310-328.
Lysa Porth has received more than $10 million in current and pending funding support from private and public agencies, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Mitacs, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. In addition, she has been appointed by Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers to serve as one of eight experts on a national Advisory Committee for Canada’s Agricultural Business Risk Management program.
Funding
- NSERC, CRD ($332,712 CDN) 2017-2019
- Scor Foundation ($200,000 CDN) 2016-2018
- Society of Actuaries, Centre of Actuarial Excellence Grant ($200,000 USD) 2016-2018
- University of Manitoba, University Collaborative Research Program Grant ($24,200 CDN) 2016-2018
- University of Manitoba, Faculty of Science Interdisciplinary Grant ($10,000 CDN) 2016-2017
- Mitacs, Accelerate ($92,000) 2015-2017
- SSHRC, Insight ($182,000) 2015-2018
- Mitacs, Accelerate Cluster ($120,000) 2014-2016
Research Partners and Collaborators
- Guy Carpenter & Company (www.guycarp.com)
- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (www.agr.gc.ca)
- Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (www.masc.mb.ca)
- Agricultural Financial Services Corporation (www.afsc.ca)
- Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation (www.scic.com)
- Agricorp (www.agricorp.com)
- Alberta Beef Producers (www.albertabeef.org)
- Saskatchewan Cattleman’s Association (www.saskbeef.com)
- Manitoba Pork Council (www.manitobapork.com)
- SCOR (www.scor.com)
- Airbus Defense and Space (www.airbusdefenseandspace.com)
Selected Presentations and Keynotes
Porth, L. Current Events in Climate Impacted Insurance and Technology, Society of Actuaries webcast, upcoming Dec. 14, 2016.
Porth, L. Current Trends in General Insurance Loss Costs - Agricultural Insurance, Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries (SOA), Las Vegas, NV, USA, October 2016.
Porth, L. Innovations in Agricultural Insurance: An Actuarial Perspective. Invited Keynote, 51st Actuarial Research Conference, Minneapolis, MN, USA, July 2016.
Porth, L. Innovations in Agricultural Risk Management and Insurance. Invited Keynote, Research and Operations Conference, Quebec City, QC, Canada, July 2016.
Porth, L. Agricultural Insurance in Canada: Public-Private Partnerships. Invited Keynote, 33rd AIAG Congress, Kansas City, MS, USA, October 2015.
Porth, L. Challenges Faced in Agricultural Insurance Ratemaking. Invited Keynote, Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries (SOA), Austin, TX, USA, October 2015.
Porth, L. Spatial Dependence and Aggregation in Weather Risk Hedging. Invited Keynote, Mississippi State University, April 2015.
Porth, L. Discussant, Current Research Panel, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Agri-Risk Initiatives 2014 Forum, Ottawa, Canada, February 2014.