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Harvard Business School professor Peter Tufano has been named Dean of Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. He will take up his post July 1, 2011, according to an article in the Financial Times. Established in 1996, Saïd is one of Europe’s youngest business schools. “This school has been well taken care of by the first three deans. It is poised for such an incredible take off,” says Professor Tufano, who is an academic affiliate of Analysis Group. He has spent more than three decades at Harvard working to advance the field of consumer finance. His other research focuses on risk management, financial engineering, and mutual funds. He also co-chairs the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Household Finance working group.

Professor Tufano recently participated in the podcast, “Who Could Say No to a ‘No-Lose’ Lottery?” a production of the New York Times Freakonomics blog. Professor Tufano and other experts explore the pros and cons of state governments adopting prize-linked savings (PLS) plans – that is, bank accounts that pool a certain amount of users’ interest and pay out cash prizes regularly. PLS programs have gained more traction overseas than in the United States, in part because of laws that permit states and local governments to have preferential access to lotteries as a means to fund deficits. But the logic of this product is quite obvious, says Professor Tufano, who helped build successful PLS programs for several credit unions in Michigan. “People would rather have a small chance at a life-changing payout than an almost certainty of a pittance,” he notes.

Read the official Oxford University press release

Hear the Freakonomics podcast