Law & Economics
Portrait of Michael C. Jensen
Scholar portraitSource: Harvard Business School

Jensen

Michael C. Jensen

Financial economist of agency theory, corporate control, and organizational design

agency problemscorporate governancecorporate control

Official Source Note

Harvard Business School describes Jensen as Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration Emeritus and credits his research on agency theory, organizational design, incentives, corporate finance, corporate governance, and law and economics.

Jensen is included because his work made agency costs and free cash flow central to the economic analysis of ownership, monitoring, compensation, leverage, takeovers, and organizational form.

Source: Harvard Business School

Relevance to the Archive

Jensen provides a core analytical bridge between ownership structure, managerial incentives, monitoring, leverage, takeovers, and organizational form.

Representative Contributions

  • Theory of the Firm (with William Meckling, 1976)
  • Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow (1986)
  • The Eclipse of the Public Corporation (1989)

Works Included Here