Kevin Werbach

Kevin Werbach
  • Liem Sioe Liong/First Pacific Company Professor
  • Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics
  • Chairperson, Legal Studies and Business Ethics

Contact Information

  • office Address:

    673 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
    3730 Walnut Street
    Philadelphia, PA 19104

Research Interests: Blockchain and digital assets, Internet policy, Ethics of artificial intelligence, gamification

Links: CV, Personal Website, Kevin Werbach (@kwerb) on Twitter, LinkedIn

Overview

A professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and formerly Counsel for New Technology Policy at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Werbach has spent the past two decades exploring major trends at the intersection of the Internet, digital media, and communications. He served on the Obama Administration’s Presidential Transition Team and founded the Supernova Group, a technology consulting firm, which organized the CEO-level Supernova technology conference. He also created one of the most successful massive open online courses, with nearly half a million enrollments. He was named Wharton’s first-ever Iron Prof in 2010.

Werbach has published four books, including The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust, For the Win: The Power of Gamification and Game Thinking in Business, Education, Government, and Social Impact, and After the Digital Tornado: Networks, Algorithms, Humanity. He is the host of the podcast The Road to Accountable AI.

Earlier in his career, he edited the influential technology newsletter Release 1.0, and helped develop the U.S. Government’s Internet and e-commerce policies in the Clinton Administration.

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Research

  • Legal, regulatory, and governance aspects of blockchain and cryptocurrencies
  • Regulation of emerging digital platforms and services
  • Ethical and legal implications of artificial intelligence and business analytics

Teaching

LGST 2420/6420: Big Data, Big Responsibilities

LGST 6120: Responsibility in Business

LGST 2440/6440: Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

Current Courses

  • LGST2420 - Big Data, Big Responsibilities: Toward Accountable Artificial Intelligence

    Artificial intelligence, and related forms of algorithmic decision-making and analytics, are already beginning to transform business, and beyond. With the immense power of these tools, however, comes tremendous responsibility. Problems of accuracy, liability, transparency, bias and discrimination, data protection, job displacement, manipulation, misinformation, and intellectual property violations are already prominent. Major government actors around the world are rapidly adopting new legislation and other obligations. This course identifies the major issues of AI accountability that organizations must consider, as well as the operational, legal compliance, ethical, and technical steps they can take to address them.

    LGST2420001 ( Syllabus )

  • LGST6120 - Responsibility In Business

    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.

    LGST6120006 ( Syllabus )

  • LGST6420 - Big Data, Big Responsibilities: The Law And Ethics Of Business Analytics

    Artificial intelligence, and related forms of algorithmic decision-making and analytics, are already beginning to transform business, and beyond. With the immense power of these tools, however, comes tremendous responsibility. Problems of accuracy, liability, transparency, bias and discrimination, data protection, job displacement, manipulation, misinformation, and intellectual property violations are already prominent. Major government actors around the world are rapidly adopting new legislation and other obligations. This course identifies the major issues of AI accountability that organizations must consider, as well as the operational, legal compliance, ethical, and technical steps they can take to address them.

    LGST6420002 ( Syllabus )

Past Courses

  • LGST2220 - Internet Law Priv Cyber

    This course examines the complex and often novel legal issues surrounding the development and current state of the Internet, information privacy, and cybersecurity. Topics include federal- and state-level regulation and enforcement of Internet and privacy legal concepts, data breaches, online privacy protections, how to legally manage a borderless Internet, and the liability of intermediaries such as network operators, social media services, and search engines.

  • LGST2420 - Big Data, Big Responsibilities

    Artificial intelligence, and related forms of algorithmic decision-making and analytics, are already beginning to transform business, and beyond. With the immense power of these tools, however, comes tremendous responsibility. Problems of accuracy, liability, transparency, bias and discrimination, data protection, job displacement, manipulation, misinformation, and intellectual property violations are already prominent. Major government actors around the world are rapidly adopting new legislation and other obligations. This course identifies the major issues of AI accountability that organizations must consider, as well as the operational, legal compliance, ethical, and technical steps they can take to address them.

  • LGST2440 - Blockchain/Cryptocurrenc

    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.

  • LGST2990 - Seminar in Law & Society

    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.

  • LGST6110 - Resp in Global Mgmt

    This course uses the global business context to introduce students to important legal, ethical and cultural challenges they will face as business leaders. Cases and materials will address how business leaders, constrained by law and motivated to act responsibly in a global context, should analyze relevant variables to make wise decisions. Topics will include an introduction to the basic theoretical frameworks used in the analysis of ethical issues, such as right-based, consequentialist-based, and virtue-based reasoning, and conflicting interpretations of corporate responsibility. The course will include materials that introduce students to basic legal (common law vs. civil law) and normative (human rights) regimes at work in the global economy as well as sensitize them to the role of local cultural traditions in global business activity. Topics may also include such issues as comparative forms of corporate governance, bribery and corruption in global markets, human rights issues, diverse legal compliance systems, corporate responses to global poverty, global environmental responsibilities, and challenges arising when companies face conflicting ethical demands between home and local, host country mores. The pedagogy emphasizes globalized cases, exercises, and theoretical materials from the fields of legal studies, business ethics and social responsibility.

  • LGST6120 - Responsibility in Bus.

    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.

  • LGST6420 - Big Data, Big Responsibilities

    Artificial intelligence, and related forms of algorithmic decision-making and analytics, are already beginning to transform business, and beyond. With the immense power of these tools, however, comes tremendous responsibility. Problems of accuracy, liability, transparency, bias and discrimination, data protection, job displacement, manipulation, misinformation, and intellectual property violations are already prominent. Major government actors around the world are rapidly adopting new legislation and other obligations. This course identifies the major issues of AI accountability that organizations must consider, as well as the operational, legal compliance, ethical, and technical steps they can take to address them.

  • LGST6440 - Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies

    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.

  • LGST7990 - Seminar in Law & Society

    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.

  • OIDD2220 - Internet Law Priv Cyber

    This course examines the complex and often novel legal issues surrounding the development and current state of the Internet, information privacy, and cybersecurity. Topics include federal- and state-level regulation and enforcement of Internet and privacy legal concepts, data breaches, online privacy protections, how to legally manage a borderless Internet, and the liability of intermediaries such as network operators, social media services, and search engines.

  • OIDD8970 - Global Modular Course

    Global Modular Course (GMC) - MBA

  • PPE4998 - Directed Honors Research

    Student arranges with a Penn 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

Awards And Honors

Aspen Institute Ideas Worth Teaching Award (2021)

NESTA Decentralised Future Prize, First Place (2020)

UBRI Educator Award for Outstanding Blockchain Teacher (2020)

Academy of Legal Studies in Business, Ralph Bunche Award, Finalist (2020)

Gamification Summit, Special Achievement Award for Greatest Contributions to the Field of Gamification (2013)

American Academy in Berlin, Berlin Prize in Law (2011) (declined)

In the News

Knowledge @ Wharton

Activity

Latest Research

Kevin Werbach and David Zaring (Forthcoming), Systemically Important Technology.
All Research

In the News

How Dynamic Electricity Pricing Can Improve Market Efficiency

New research co-authored by Wharton's Arthur van Benthem demonstrates how consumers could benefit from aligning electricity prices with the cost of producing and distributing that power.…Read More

Knowledge @ Wharton - 2024/11/12
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Awards and Honors

Wharton MBA Program, Teaching Commitment and Curricular Innovation Award 2012
All Awards