Thomas N. Hubbard

Thomas N. Hubbard is the Elinor and H. Wendell Hobbs Professor of Management and Professor of Strategy at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He currently serves as Faculty Director of the Masters in Management Program (2023-present) and has been a professor at Kellogg since 2005. Prior to Kellogg, he held positions at the University of Chicago GSB and UCLA, with a visiting professorship at Columbia GSB during 2004-05. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Hubbard earned his PhD in Economics from Stanford University (1996) and BA in Economics from Princeton University (1989) with High Honors. His academic leadership includes serving as Senior Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives (2012-2016) and Chairman of the Department of Management and Strategy (2010-2012) at Kellogg.

His research focuses on empirical industrial organization, examining how information problems affect firm and market organization. Key research streams include industry structure dynamics (analyzing hotel industry evolution and highway construction impacts), hierarchical organization and earnings inequality (using legal services data), specialization in legal services, and technology-organization relationships in trucking. His work combines theoretical modeling with rigorous empirical analysis to address fundamental questions about market structure and organizational form.

Hubbard's research has evolved from earlier work on trucking industry organization to more recent studies on industry dynamics and hierarchical production. His publications consistently appear in top economics journals, reflecting the significance of his contributions to understanding how firms organize to solve information problems.

• Chair's Core Course Teaching Award (2023-24)
• Oliver E. Williamson Award for Best Paper in Law, Economics, and Organization
• Best Professor Award, Kellogg-HKUST EMBA Program

Hubbard has advised numerous PhD students and collaborated extensively with researchers including Luis Garicano and George Baker. His work bridges theoretical organizational economics with detailed empirical analysis, making significant contributions to our understanding of how firms organize themselves to solve information problems and create value. He maintains an active research agenda exploring the intersection of industrial organization and organizational economics.