Paul A. Gompers is an American economist. He is the Eugene Holman Professor of Business Administration at the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

. He is the co-author of three books.

Early life

Paul A. Gompers grew up in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in biology from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1987. He earned a

Marshall Scholarship The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...

to attend the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, where he earned an MSc in economics. He earned a PhD in business economics from Harvard University in 1993.

Career

Gompers worked as a biochemist for

Bayer Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of busi ...

shortly after college. After his PhD, he was an Assistant Professor of Finance at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

Booth School of Business The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Chicago Booth or Booth) is the graduate business school of the University of Chicago. Founded in 1898, Chicago Booth is the second-oldest business school in the U.S. and is associated with 10 N ...

. He joined the

, where he eventually became the Eugene Holman Professor of Business Administration. He now teaches

executive education Executive education (ExEd or Exec. Ed) refers to academic programs at graduate-level business schools for executives, business leaders and functional managers globally. These programs are generally non-credit and non-degree-granting, but sometime ...

at the HBS. He has written between 50 and 60

business case A business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. It is often presented in a well-structured written document, but may also come in the form of a short verbal agreement or presentation. The logic of the business case is that, ...

s. He has also published articles in ''

The Journal of Finance ''The Journal of Finance'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Finance Association. It was established in 1946 and is considered to be one of the premier finance journals. The editor-in-chief i ...

'', the ''

Journal of Financial Economics The ''Journal of Financial Economics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Elsevier, covering the field of finance. It is considered to be one of the premier finance journals. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journa ...

'', the ''

Brookings Papers on Economic Activity {{Infobox Journal , title = Brookings Papers on Economic Activity , cover = , former_name = , abbreviation = Brook. Pap. Econ. Act. , discipline = Economics , language = , editors = Janice Eberly ...

'', '' The Journal of Private Equity'', the ''

Quarterly Journal of Economics ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Oxford University Press for the Harvard University Department of Economics. Its current editors-in-chief are Robert J. Barro, Lawrence F. Katz, Nathan N ...

'', ''

The Journal of Law and Economics ''The Journal of Law and Economics'' is an academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press. It publishes articles on the economic analysis of regulation and the behavior of regulated firms, the political economy of legislation and leg ...

'', etc. Additionally, he is the co-author of three books, two of which were co-authored with his HBS colleague

Josh Lerner Josh Lerner is an American economist known for his research in venture capital, private equity, and innovation and entrepreneurship. He is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at the Harvard Business School. Early life Josh Lerner ...

and the third one with his HBS colleague William A. Sahlman. Gompers serves on the board of directors of Spur Capital Partners, a

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

firm. He is also a senior advisor to

Cornerstone Research Cornerstone Research is a litigation consulting firm based in the United States and the United Kingdom. It provides economic and financial analysis and expert testimony to attorneys, corporations and government agencies involved in complex litiga ...

, a litigation consulting firm. He is also a research associate at the

National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...

Works

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References

Living people Harvard College alumni Marshall Scholars Alumni of the University of Oxford University of Chicago Booth School of Business faculty Harvard Business School faculty 20th-century American economists 21st-century American economists American corporate directors Year of birth missing (living people) Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni {{US-economist-stub