1. Kevin Dowd is a British economist, having research interests in private money and free banking, monetary systems and macroeconomics, financial risk measurement and management, political economy and policy analysis, and pensions and mortality modelling.
Kevin Dowd holds a BA in economics from the University of Sheffield, an MA in economics from the University of Western Ontario, and a PhD in macroeconomics from the University of Sheffield.
Kevin Dowd is affiliated with the Cato Institute; The Cobden Centre, the Adam Smith Institute, the Institute of Economic Affairs; the Independent Institute; and the Pensions Institute at Bayes Business School, City University.
Kevin Dowd has held previous positions with the Ontario Economic Council in Toronto, Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Sheffield, and the University of Nottingham.
Kevin Dowd was a member of the think tank, Economists for Free Trade, and an avid supporter of Brexit.
Kevin Dowd was a significant contributor for the pro-Brexit lobby group Brexit Central and refused to vote in the Brexit referendum.
Kevin Dowd has repeatedly called for the abolition of central banks and an end to state intervention in the financial system.
Kevin Dowd is a supporter of commodity-based monetary systems such as the gold standard and is a critic of fiat-based money issued by a central bank.
Kevin Dowd takes a largely Austrian approach to economics, but one that is heavily influenced by the Quantity Theory of Money and the work of monetarists such as Milton Friedman and David Laidler.
Kevin Dowd has proposed a free-market approach to the resolution of the Global Financial Crisis, based on extended personal liability for senior bankers, the exit of the state from the financial system and the restoration of a sound monetary standard.
Kevin Dowd has repeatedly argued that the Global Financial Crisis has never been properly resolved and that the policies adopted since 2007 have been ineffective, counter-productive and of dubious legality.
Kevin Dowd has written extensively on financial risk measurement and management.
Kevin Dowd has argued that financial modelling is conceptually dubious because it is based on a naive 'scientistic' belief that economic systems can be modelled using quantitative methods inappropriately imported from natural sciences such as physics.
Kevin Dowd is particularly critical of the widely used Value-at-Risk or VaR risk measure, the assumptions inherent to, and so the use of the "normal" or Gaussian distribution in risk management, and the use of financial risk models for regulatory purposes.
Kevin Dowd is the co-inventor of the PensionMetrics Defined-Contribution stochastic pension model, and the Stochastic Lifestyling asset allocation strategy.