David Loughran

David Loughran

David Loughran is Praedicat's Senior Vice President of Product & Chief Economist. Prior to joining Praedicat as a founding member, David was Senior Economist at the RAND Corporation where he served as principal investigator for a diverse portfolio of empirically-driven, policy-relevant research in the areas of insurance, labor markets, demography, and energy.

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PFOA & PFOS replacements under fire
PFOA & PFOS replacements under fire 700 350 David Loughran

DuPont and 3M introduced the commercial world to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the 1950s.  Decades later, the first generation of these water-, grease-, and stain-resistant chemicals – perfluorooctanoic…

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Locating 39,000 companies on the casualty catastrophe map
Locating 39,000 companies on the casualty catastrophe map 700 350 David Loughran

One of the many reasons casualty catastrophe is a challenge to model is that the insured’s exposure is driven by its past and present business activities: the industrial processes it…

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Jury sees scary risk in glyphosate where scientists see murky hazard
Jury sees scary risk in glyphosate where scientists see murky hazard 700 350 David Loughran

In the first decision of its kind, a California jury last Friday determined that the agricultural chemicals company Monsanto is liable for causing a man’s Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL). The jury…

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Looking around the corner with ChemMeta
Looking around the corner with ChemMeta 700 350 David Loughran

As many of you who follow us may know, Praedicat was incubated within the RAND Corporation prior to its launch in 2012. RAND is the world’s largest non-profit think tank…

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Diesel, opioids, and the conservation of regulatory and litigious energy
Diesel, opioids, and the conservation of regulatory and litigious energy 700 350 David Loughran

Regulatory and litigious energy is created when a large number of individuals are harmed or perceived to be harmed. Once created, that energy is typically conserved following a path of…

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Minibrain technology is advancing rapidly and raising ethical concerns
Minibrain technology is advancing rapidly and raising ethical concerns 150 150 David Loughran

Scientists are growing increasingly sophisticated three-dimensional miniature brains and other organs (“organoids”) — stomachs, kidneys, livers, prostate glands, pancreases — in order to understand disease processes and formulate more effective…

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Aggregating public and scientific opinion
Aggregating public and scientific opinion 150 150 David Loughran

Many of us love a good political horse race. The Associated Press, though, recently issued new guidelines for reporting on pre-election polling that seeks to deemphasize that type of election coverage. Among…

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The social and genetic factors that drive susceptibility
The social and genetic factors that drive susceptibility 150 150 David Loughran

As a labor economist I’ve long been interested in the question of what makes some individuals more susceptible to adverse outcomes than others. Everyone has “bad luck” from time to…

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What might smartphones, gambling, sex, and exercise have in common? Behavioral addiction
What might smartphones, gambling, sex, and exercise have in common? Behavioral addiction 150 150 David Loughran

In early January, two major Apple stockholders, JANA Partners, LLC and the California State Teacher’s Retirement System, sent a letter to Apple urging the company to address the possibility that overuse of…

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When scientific controversy grants free speech protection
When scientific controversy grants free speech protection 150 150 David Loughran

Monsanto scored a victory in a California federal court on Tuesday in its years-long battle over the State of California’s decision to list glyphosate—the main ingredient in the company’s widely-applied…

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Childhood obesity is not trending downward as previously thought
Childhood obesity is not trending downward as previously thought 150 150 David Loughran

Public health researchers reported discouraging findings on Monday: The rate of obesity among U.S. children remains stubbornly high and has actually increased among the youngest children ages 2-5. According to…

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California joins three other states in proposing age restrictions on tackle football
California joins three other states in proposing age restrictions on tackle football 150 150 David Loughran

All states have youth sports concussion safety laws that require schools, interscholastic athletic associations, and often youth sporting organizations to follow “concussion protocols” in an effort to protect children from…

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