673 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
3730 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Research Interests: Internet policy, ethics of artificial intelligence, blockchain, gamification
Links: CV, Personal Website, Kevin Werbach (@kwerb) on Twitter
JD, Harvard University, 1994; BA, University of California at Berkeley, 1991
Central Intelligence Agency (2019). Training program on blockchain technology and applications.
World Bank (2014-15). Advising on use of gamification in massive open online courses.
Marriott and Franklin Covey (2014). Developing gamification system for employee motivation.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2013). Analysis of the future of broadband networks.
Wharton: 2004-present
FCC Agency Review Co-Lead, Obama-Biden Transition Project (2008); Founder, Supernova Group, 2002-present; Editor, Release 1.0, 1998-2002; Counsel for New Technology Policy, Federal Communications Commission, 1994-1998
Professional Leadership 2014-2019
Fellow, Global Institute for Communications (GLOCOM), 2002-present; Editorial Board, Info: The Journal of Policy, Regulation and Strategy for Telecommunications, Information and Media, 2010-present; International Editorial Board, Ohio State Technology Law Journal, 2006-present; Editorial Board, Journal of Information Policy, 2010-present; Faculty Affiliate, Penn Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition, 2010-present; Faculty Affiliate, Penn Wharton Public Policy Initiative, 2013-present; Faculty Affiliate, Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences (2013-present); Fellow, Columbia University Institute of Tele-Information (2016-present)
Corporate and Public Sector Leadership 2014-2019
Director and Treasurer, Public Knowledge, 2011-present; Advisory Council, Institute for the Future, 2012-present
Kevin Werbach, Martin Weiss, Douglas Sicker, Carlos Caicedo (2019), On the Application of Blockchains to Spectrum Management, IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking.
Kevin Werbach and Colleen Baker, “Blockchain in Financial Services”. In Fintech Law and Policy, edited by Jelena Madir, (Edward Elgar, 2019)
Kevin Werbach, The Real Reason for Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency in New York Times, June 20, 2019.
Kevin Werbach, Trump’s 5G Plan Is More Than a Gift to His Base in New York Times, March 6, 2019.
Kevin Werbach, People Don’t Trust Blockchain Systems – Is Regulation a Way to Help? in The Conversation, February 5, 2019.
Kevin Werbach, Why We Must Regulate the Blockchain in Salon, November 25, 2018.
Kevin Werbach, What the Russia Hack Indictments Reveal About Bitcoin in New York Times, June 22, 2018.
Kevin Werbach, Blockchain Isn’t a Revolution: It’s Two Big Innovations and One Promising Idea in Medium, June 18, 2018.
Kevin Werbach, When Crises Come, Ethically Challenged Firms Such as Uber are Most Vulnerable, Wharton Prof Says in Philadelphia Inquirer, April 15, 2018.
Kevin Werbach, The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2018)
LGST 242/642: Big Data, Big Responsibilities
LGST 612: Responsibility in Business
LGST 244/644: Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies
This course introduces students to important ethical and legal challenges they will face as leaders in business. The course materials will be useful to students preparing for managerial positions that are likely to place them in advisory and/or agency roles owing duties to employers, clients, suppliers, and customers. Although coverage will vary depending on instructor, the focus of the course will be on developing skills in ethical and legal analyses that can assist managers as they make both individual-level and firm-level decisions about the responsible courses of action when duties, loyalties, rules, norms, and interests are in conflict. For example, the rules of insider trading may form the basis for lessons in some sections. Group assignments, role-plays, and case studies may, at the instructor's discretion, be used to help illustrate the basic theoretical frameworks. Course materials will highlight industry codes and professional norms, as well as the importance of personal and/or religious values. Format: class participation, quiz, group report, and final paper or exam. Materials: coursepack. Prerequisites: none.
LGST612005 ( Syllabus )
LGST612007 ( Syllabus )
The Senior Capstone Project is required for all BAS degree students, in lieu of the senior design course. The Capstone Project provides an opportunity for the student to apply the theoretical ideas and tools learned from other courses. The project is usually applied, rather than theoretical, exercise, and should focus on a real world problem related to the career goals of the student. The one-semester project may be completed in either the fall or sprong term of the senior year, and must be done under the supervision of a sponsoring faculty member. To register for this course, the student must submit a detailed proposal, signed by the supervising professor, and the student's faculty advisor, to the Office of Academic Programs two weeks prior to the start of the term.
The senior thesis course is a capstone for seniors in the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business. Students in the Huntsman Program should consult with the Huntsman Program advisors for more information.
This course presents law as an evolving social institution, with special emphasis on the legal regulation of business in the context of social values. It considers basic concepts of law and legal process, in the U.S. and other legal systems, and introduces the fundamentals of rigorous legal analysis. An in-depth examination of contract law is included.
This course looks at how courts, legislatures, and regulators confront the major issues of the internet world. Billions of people are now active on social media, and firms such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Alibaba are among the worlds most valuable and influential. The legal interfaces between the physical world and the digital world are therefore increasingly important. In particular, exploitation of personal information online by governments, digital platforms, and bad actors is becoming a constant source of major controversies. The material in the course ranges from the foundations of cyberlaw, developed during the e-commerce bubble of the 1990s, to current leading-edge questions around the power and responsibility of digital intermediaries; data protection in the U.S. and Europe; cybercrime;blockchain; and network neutrality. No pre-existing legal or technical knowledge is required.
Significant technologies always have unintended consequences, and their effects are never neutral. A World of ubiquitous data, subject to ever more sophisticated collection, aggregation, and analysis, creates massive opportunities for both financial gain and social good. It also creates dangers in areas such as privacy, security, discrimination, exploitation, and inequality, as well as simple hubris about the effectiveness of management by algorithm. Firms that anticipate the risks of these new practices will be best positioned to avoid missteps. This course introduces students to the legal, policy, and ethical dimensions of big data, predictive analytics, and related techniques. It then examines responses-both private and governmental-that may be employed to address these concerns.
Blockchain techonology is a form of decentralized database that allows for the secure exchange of value without reliance on trusted intermediaries. Blockchain is the foundation for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, as well as for distributed ledger platforms used by enterprise consortia in various industries. Many believe that blockchain solutions have revolutionary potential. They promise to replace legal enforcement with technical mechanisms of cryptographic consensus as the means of generating trust. The technology has generated significant excitement, investment, and entrepreneurial activity in recent years. However, the business value of blockchain-based solutions is uncertain, cryptocurrency valuations are speculative, and there are serious legal, regulatory, and governance challenges to be addressed. This course is designed to give students the tools for critical assessment of ongoing developments in this evolving area.
A study of the nature, functions, and limits of law as an agency of societal policy. Each semester an area of substantive law is studied for the purpose of examining the relationship between legal norms developed and developing in the area and societal problems and needs. Please see department for current offerings.
This course introduces students to important ethical and legal challenges they will face as leaders in business. The course materials will be useful to students preparing for managerial positions that are likely to place them in advisory and/or agency roles owing duties to employers, clients, suppliers, and customers. Although coverage will vary depending on instructor, the focus of the course will be on developing skills in ethical and legal analyses that can assist managers as they make both individual-level and firm-level decisions about the responsible courses of action when duties, loyalties, rules, norms, and interests are in conflict. For example, the rules of insider trading may form the basis for lessons in some sections. Group assignments, role-plays, and case studies may, at the instructor's discretion, be used to help illustrate the basic theoretical frameworks. Course materials will highlight industry codes and professional norms, as well as the importance of personal and/or religious values. Format: class participation, quiz, group report, and final paper or exam. Materials: coursepack. Prerequisites: none.
Significant technologies always have unintended consequences, and their effects are never neutral. A world of ubiquitous data, subject to ever more sophisticated collection, aggregation, and analysis, creates massive opportunities for both financial gain and social good. It also creates dangers in areas such as privacy, security, discrimination, exploitation, and inequality, as well as simple hubris about the effectiveness of management by algorithm. Firms that anticipate the risks of these new practices will be best positioned to avoid missteps. This course introduces students to the legal, policy, and ethical dimensions of big data, predictive analytics, and related techniques. It then examines responses-both private and governmental-that may be employed to address these concerns.
Blockchain technology is a form of decentralized database that allows for the secure exchange of value without reliance on trusted intermediaries. Blockchain is the foundation for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, as well as for distributed ledger platforms used by enterprise consortia in various industries. Many believe that blockchain solutions have revolutionary potential. They promise to replace legal enforcement with technical mechanisms of cryptographic consensus as the means of generating trust. The technology has generated significant excitement, investment, and entrepreneurial activity in recent years. However, the business value of blockchain-based solutions is uncertain, cryptocurrency valuations are speculative, and there are serious legal, regulatory, and governance challenges to be addressed. This course is designed to give students the tools for critical assessment of ongoing developments in this evolving area.
A study of the nature, functions, and limits of law as an agency of societal policy. Each semester an area of substantive law is studied for the purpose of examining the relationship between legal norms developed and developing in the area and societal problems and needs.
This course looks at how courts, legislatures, and regulators confront the major issues of the internet world. Billions of people are now active on social media, and firms such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Alibaba are among the worlds most valuable and influential. The legal interfaces between the physical world and the digital world are therefore increasingly important. In particular, exploitation of personal information online by governments, digital platforms, and bad actors is becoming a constant source of major controversies. The material in the course ranges from the foundations of cyberlaw, developed during the e-commerce bubble of the 1990s, to current leading-edge questions around the power and responsibility of digital intermediaries; data protection in the U.S. and Europe; cybercrime;blockchain; and network neutrality. No pre-existing legal or technical knowledge is required.
Student arranges with a faculty member to do research and write a thesis on a suitable topic. For more information on honors visit: https://ppe.sas.upenn.edu/study/curriculum/honors-theses
From motivating employees to maintaining healthy habits, games can help us achieve our goals in surprising ways, say the authors of the revised and updated edition of ‘For the Win.’
Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/16/2020On June 22, Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM) hosted its first-ever Spring Policy Forum in the heart of U.S. policy reform. There, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., over 300 congressional staffers, Wharton alumni, business leaders, academics and media professionals gathered to engage with Wharton professors and other industry and…
Wharton Stories - 07/09/2018