Robert H. Gertner

About

Robert H. Gertner has been a faculty member at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business since 1986. He holds the position of Frank P. and Marianne R. Diassi Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Strategy and serves as the John Edwardson Faculty Director of the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation. His research interests include strategic decision-making, corporate finance, organization structure, the theory of the firm, and social enterprises. Gertner has published extensively in scholarly journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, and the Yale Law Journal, and is a co-author of the book 'Game Theory and the Law' with colleagues Douglas Baird and Randy Picker. He teaches courses including Perspectives on Capitalism and New Social Ventures, focusing on the intersection of economics, strategy, and social impact.

Research topics

• Finance
• Microeconomics
• Business
• Industrial organization
• Economic growth
• Economics
• Public relations

Selected publications

• Learning about Internal Capital Markets from Corporate Spin‐offs

  The Journal of Finance · 2002-12-01 · 257 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  We examine the investment behavior of firms before and after being spun off from their parent companies. Their investment after the spin‐off is significantly more sensitive to measures of investment opportunities (e.g., industry Tobin's Q or industry investment) than it is before the spin‐off. Spin‐offs tend to cut investment in low Q industries and increase investment in high Q industries. These changes are observed primarily in spin‐offs of firms in industries unrelated to the parents' industr…

  PublisherDOI

• Filling gap in incomplete contracts: an economic theory of default rules

  Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · 1998-01-01 · 114 citations

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

• The Value Maximizing Board

  1996-12-01 · 105 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This paper compares board and director characteristics of reverse leveraged buyout (LBO) firms controlled by LBO specialists to those of an industry- and size-matched comparison sample. We consider the boards of the reverse LBOs to be value-maximizing because of the strong incentives the LBO specialists have to structure those boards in a way that maximizes shareholder value. Relative to the comparison firms, we find that the boards of the reverse LBOs are smaller, control larger equity stakes,…

• Learning About Internal Capital Markets From Corporate Spinoffs

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2001-01-01 · 103 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Vertical Integration and Internet Strategies in the Apparel Industry

  Journal of Industrial Economics · 2001-12-01 · 61 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  We explore the relationship between vertical scope and the ability to respond to a significant economic shock by studying how firms in the apparel industry have adapted to the Internet. We find that vertically integrated specialty retailers, e.g., The Gap, tended to start on‐line sales sooner than non‐integrated vendors, e.g., Nautica, and department stores. We also find that the products of vertically integrated retailers are more available on‐line than those of non‐integrated vendors. These re…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ian Ayres

  31 shared

• David Scharfstein

  24 shared

• Jeremy C. Stein

  8 shared

• Dennis W. Carlton

  University of Chicago

  7 shared

• Roland Bénabou

  6 shared

• Paul Asquith

  The Center For Rural Development

  4 shared

• Luis Garicano

  New York University

  4 shared

• Johannes Stein

  Harvard University

  4 shared

Education

• B.A.

  Princeton University

  1981

• Ph.D.

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1986

Awards & honors

• Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Strategy
• Frank P. and Marianne R. Diassi Distinguished Service Profes…
• John Edwardson Faculty Director of the Rustandy Center for S…
• Chair of the Board of Trustees of NORC at the University of…
• Chicago Booth Dean's Society

Similar researchers at University of Chicago

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• Emir Kamenicah-29