diff --git a/src/quantecon_book_theme/__init__.py b/src/quantecon_book_theme/__init__.py
index 10bba79..c80abd3 100644
--- a/src/quantecon_book_theme/__init__.py
+++ b/src/quantecon_book_theme/__init__.py
@@ -618,7 +618,9 @@ def get_github_src_folder(app):
         context["theme_description"] = description
 
     # Add the author if it exists
-    if app.config.author != "unknown":
+    if app.config.author in {"unknown", "Author name not set"}:
+        context.pop("author", None)
+    else:
         context["author"] = app.config.author
 
     # Absolute URLs for logo if `html_baseurl` is given
diff --git a/tests/test_build.py b/tests/test_build.py
index 2f444ba..9c6f3c1 100644
--- a/tests/test_build.py
+++ b/tests/test_build.py
@@ -190,6 +190,10 @@ def test_build_book(file_regression, sphinx_build):
 
     # Check a few components that should be true on each page
     index_html = sphinx_build.get("index.html")
+    assert (
+        index_html.find("p", class_="qe-page__header-authors").get_text(strip=True)
+        == "Executable Book Project"
+    )
     sidebar = index_html.find_all(attrs={"class": "bd-sidebar"})[0]
     file_regression.check(sidebar.prettify(), extension=".html")
 
@@ -220,6 +224,29 @@ def test_build_book(file_regression, sphinx_build):
     sphinx_build.clean()
 
 
+def test_build_book_without_author(tmp_path):
+    """Do not render Sphinx's default author placeholder in the page header."""
+    path_book = tmp_path / "book"
+    copytree(path_base, path_book)
+
+    path_conf = path_book / "conf.py"
+    conf = path_conf.read_text(encoding="utf8")
+    path_conf.write_text(
+        conf.replace('author = "Executable Book Project"\n', ""), encoding="utf8"
+    )
+
+    check_output(["sphinx-build", ".", "_build/html", "-a", "-W"], cwd=path_book)
+    index_html = BeautifulSoup(
+        (path_book / "_build" / "html" / "index.html").read_text(encoding="utf8"),
+        "html.parser",
+    )
+
+    assert (
+        index_html.find("p", class_="qe-page__header-authors").get_text(strip=True)
+        == ""
+    )
+
+
 # def test_navbar_options(file_regression, sphinx_build):
 #     sphinx_build.copy()