RAND Kenneth R. Feinberg Center for Catastrophic Risk Management and Compensation

The RAND Kenneth R. Feinberg Center for Catastrophic Risk Management and Compensation, or Feinberg Center, seeks to identify and promote laws, programs, and institutions that reduce the adverse social and economic effects of natural and manmade catastrophes by

  • Improving incentives to reduce future losses
  • Providing just compensation to those suffering losses while appropriately allocating liability to responsible parties
  • Helping affected individuals, businesses, and communities to recover quickly
  • Avoiding unnecessary legal, administrative, and other transaction costs

COVID-19 Liability and Compensation

  • A worker at Bad Daddy's Burger Bar in Smyrna, Georgia, April 27, 2020, photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters

    Worker and Employer Experiences with COVID-19 and the California Workers' Compensation System

    Feb 4, 2022

    Given workplace risks from COVID-19, California policymakers passed Senate Bill (SB) 1159 to facilitate access to workers' compensation benefits for frontline workers. This report reviews the literature on worker and employer experiences surrounding COVID-19 and workers' compensation benefits.

  • Corner Market cashier Effren Luckett (right) wears a mask while serving customers that don't always do the same in Jackson, Mississippi, October 26, 2021, photo by Barbara Gauntt/USA Today via Reuters

    Workers' Compensation and COVID-19

    Jan 11, 2022

    As the pandemic continues, states vary on whether or how to allow workers to seek compensation for a COVID-19 diagnosis. It's too early to know the full costs, effects, and efficacy of these efforts, but now is a good time for policymakers to consider all the arguments for and against coverage.

  • A business person in a suit holding an umbrella in front of a cityscape. Photo by anyaberkut / Getty Images

    Improving the Availability and Affordability of Pandemic Risk Insurance

    Jun 15, 2021

    Restrictions on business activity during the COVID-19 pandemic have prompted proposals for an insurance-based program to cover payroll and expenses during a pandemic. What are the characteristics of these proposals, and how will they perform in key dimensions?

  • Denise Gregory, a staff member at Crown Heights Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, a nursing home facility, receives the COVID-19 vaccine from Walgreens Pharmacist Annette Marshall, in Brooklyn, New York, December 22, 2020, photo by Yuki Iwamura/Reuters

    COVID-19 Vaccine Liability and Compensation in the United States

    Apr 29, 2021

    The United States has two federal compensation systems for people who have been harmed by vaccines. How those systems perform could affect whether some Americans are willing to be vaccinated. This RAND Corporation virtual event explored how those who believe that they have been injured by COVID-19 vaccines in the United States can seek compensation and how the two federal compensation systems differ.

  • Detail of covid-19 vaccine vials and and a syringe. Photo by vladans / Getty Images

    COVID-19 Vaccine Cross-Border Liability and Compensation

    Feb 2, 2021

    In this virtual event, experts discuss the challenges in facilitating the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and how to prevent liability and compensation concerns from affecting the vaccine supply chain and the uptake of the vaccine by the public.

  • Lynn Jones receives the COVID-19 vaccine at Jackson Madison County General Hospital in Jackson, Tennessee, Friday, Dec. 18, 2020, photo by Stephanie Amador/The Jackson Sun via Imagn Content Services, LLC/Reuters

    The Compensation System for Potential Side Effects Is an Important Part of a COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign

    Dec 18, 2020

    Concern about potential COVID-19 vaccine side effects and their consequences may be contributing to Americans' reluctance to get vaccinated. Policymakers and the public should carefully consider what types and levels of compensation for any adverse effects of vaccination are truly fair and appropriate.

Featured Research and Commentary

  • A worker at Bad Daddy's Burger Bar in Smyrna, Georgia, April 27, 2020, photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters

    Worker and Employer Experiences with COVID-19 and the California Workers' Compensation System

    Feb 4, 2022

    Given workplace risks from COVID-19, California policymakers passed Senate Bill (SB) 1159 to facilitate access to workers' compensation benefits for frontline workers. This report reviews the literature on worker and employer experiences surrounding COVID-19 and workers' compensation benefits.

  • Reacquired Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars sit in a desert graveyard near Victorville, California, March 28, 2018, photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

    The Globalization of Mass Civil Litigation: Lessons from the Volkswagen "Clean Diesel" Case

    Jun 22, 2021

    The Volkswagen "clean diesel" emission fraud litigation is a prime example of global litigation, a new form of transnational mass litigation. The case illustrates the features of global litigation and the problems that arise in the resolution of these types of claims across transnational jurisdictions.

  • One hundred dollar bill puzzle, photo by fatido/Getty Images

    Strategies for Effectively Allocating Opioid Settlement Funds

    Jun 14, 2021

    Opioid settlements with pharmaceutical companies have already occurred, and there are more to come. Settlement funds could save lives and mitigate lifelong harms from opioid misuse if they are allocated to the most effective interventions. States and communities have one chance to get the allocation right and to avoid some of the missteps that substantially diminished the potential public health impact of the tobacco settlement.

  • A judge's gavel with bottles of prescription drugs. Photo by CatLane / Getty Images

    Opioid Litigation: What's New and What Does It Mean for Future Litigation?

    Feb 9, 2021

    Amid claims that the pharmaceutical industry used misleading tactics to downplay the known harms of prescription opioids, more than 2,000 plaintiffs have joined the largest civil trial in U.S. history: National Prescription Opiate Litigation (MDL 2804). In this symposium, experts discuss the opioid litigation and its effects on the future of mass litigation.

Related Research

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