Following a long illness, Harris Schlesinger died on 29 September 2015. This has been a huge loss for the community of scholars in risk and insurance economics. Harris was a leading researcher in his field and continued to make important contributions until his death, including delivering the EGRIE keynote address, which is published in the Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, March (2015), volume 40(1).

Harris and Henri Loubergé founded the Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance Theory in 1990, which is now the Geneva Risk and Insurance Review (GRIR). He co-edited the journal from 1990 to 1998. He was an avid champion of the European Group of Risk and Insurance Economists (EGRIE) and was president in 2006–2007. More generally, Harris was an inspiring leader for the community of risk and insurance economists and an especially supportive mentor for young researchers.

The Munich Risk and Insurance Center (MRIC), directed by Andreas Richter at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany, will host the CEAR/MRIC Behavioral Insurance Workshop, December 2016 in his honour. A selection of papers from that workshop will be eligible for submission for a special issue of the GRIR to commemorate Harris’s contributions to EGRIE and the journal. A formal announcement and call for papers will be made in the near future.

Special Note on this Issue: EGRIE Keynote Address

We are delighted to include in this issue the paper which was the basis of the EGRIE Keynote Address of Jean-Charles Rochet. The address was presented at the 42nd seminar of EGRIE. The conference was also the third meeting of the World Risk and Insurance Economics Conference (WRIEC), hosted by the MRIC at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany, 2–6 August 2015.