Wouter Dessein

Wouter Dessein is the Eli Ginzberg Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School. Dessein's research interests center on the economics of organizations: the allocation of decision-rights in organizations, the organizational structure of multi-divisional firms, the role of managers in setting firm strategy, and the impact of corporate leaders on the long-term performance of firms. His research has been published in leading journals such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Review of Economic Studies, Management Science, and the Journal of Finance. At Columbia, he teaches a popular elective on the `Economics of Strategic Behavior', a course that examines the underlying economics of successful business strategy. Prior to joining the Columbia Business School faculty in July 2008, Dessein was an associate professor of economics at the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business. Dessein earned a Bachelor in management and applied sciences from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, in 1997, and a Ph.D. in economics from Toulouse University and the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, in 2000.