HAMPTON FINER
DEPTUTY SUPERINTENDENT
RATES AND COMPETITION

Dr. Hampton Finer is Deputy Superintendent for Rates and Competition. He directs rate review activities and manages Department policies for maintaining competitive, innovative and stable insurance markets.

Dr. Finer joined the Department as Senior Policy Advisor and Chief Economist in January 2007. In that role, he evaluated the economic impact of Department policy, regulation, rule-making and enforcement on consumers and insurance markets, and played a major role in the Department's workers' compensation reform efforts, which resulted in the State's largest rate reduction ever.

From 2001 to 2006, Dr. Finer directed the economic analysis activities at the New York State Office of the Attorney General. Dr. Finer led the office's economic research and analysis efforts in a number of investigations and settlements, including Mutual Fund & Variable Annuity Market Timing, Insurance Bid Rigging, Coventry First, H&R Block and numerous antitrust matters. In 2005, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recognized Dr. Finer with the Attorney General's Award for Superior Service.

Between 1998 and 2001, Dr. Finer was a staff economist in the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics where he was involved in merger investigations and litigated cases including Heinz-Beechnut, Swedish Match and Mylan. During his tenure, Dr. Finer was recognized by the Chairman with the FTC's Team Award and Award for Meritorious Service.

Over the 1997-98 academic year, Dr. Finer taught The Economics of Work and Pay and The Economics of Employee Benefits as a Lecturer at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relation.

Dr. Finer received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1998, an MS in Labor Economics from Cornell University in 1994 and a BS in Economics (mathematical emphasis) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992.