Faculty & Research

Robert Gibbons

Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management
Professor of Applied Economics

Biography | Publications

Robert Gibbons studies the design and performance of organizations and contracts, especially "relational contracts" (i.e., agreements so rooted in the parties' particular circumstances that they are not written down, so that disputes cannot be adjudicated by such outsiders such as courts). Relational contracts arise frequently both within firms (such as between headquarters and divisions) and between firms (such as in alliances). His book, Game Theory for Applied Economists (Princeton University Press, 1992) has been translated into Chinese, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. He is currently preparing a second book, a doctoral text on organizational economics, and is co-editing the Handbook of Organizational Economics (with J. Roberts), both forthcoming with Princeton University Press. Gibbons served on the board of the Citicorp Behavioral Sciences Research Council for its duration (1994-2000) and on the board of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (2000-2006), and he is co-Principal Investigator for MIT Sloan's Program on Innovation in Markets and Organizations (2003-present).

Web Site: http://web.mit.edu/rgibbons/www/