Susan Athey
Encyclopedia
Susan Carleton Athey is an American
economist
. She is currently Professor of Economics at Harvard University
and the first female winner of the John Bates Clark Medal
.
.
She attended Duke University
from the age of 16. As an undergraduate at Duke, she completed three majors, in Economics
, Mathematics
, and Computer Science
. She got her start in economics research as a sophomore, working on problems related to auction
s with Professor Robert Marshall. She was involved in a number of activities at Duke. She served as treasurer of Chi Omega sorority and as president of the field hockey
club.
She graduated with a Ph.D. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business
at the age of 24, her thesis supervised by Professors Paul Milgrom
and Donald John Roberts
.
for six years before returning to Stanford's Department of Economics as Professor holding the Holbrook Working Chair for another five years.
of a corrupted auction was widely adopted.
. She has served as an associate editor of several leading journals, including the American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, and the RAND Journal of Economics, as well as the National Science Foundation
economics panel, and she currently serves as an associate editor for Econometrica, Theoretical Economics, and Quarterly Journal of Economics. She is a past co-editor of Journal of Economics and Management Strategy. She was the chair of the program committee for the 2006 North American Winter Meetings, and she has served on numerous committees for the Econometric Society
, the American Economic Association, and the Committee for the Status of Women in the Economics Profession.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
. She is currently Professor of Economics at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and the first female winner of the John Bates Clark Medal
John Bates Clark Medal
The John Bates Clark Medal is awarded by the American Economic Association to "that American economist under the age of forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge"...
.
Early life
Susan Athey was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in Rockville, MarylandRockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
.
She attended Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
from the age of 16. As an undergraduate at Duke, she completed three majors, in Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, and Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
. She got her start in economics research as a sophomore, working on problems related to auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
s with Professor Robert Marshall. She was involved in a number of activities at Duke. She served as treasurer of Chi Omega sorority and as president of the field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
club.
She graduated with a Ph.D. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business
Stanford Graduate School of Business
The Stanford Graduate School of Business is one of the professional schools of Stanford University, in Stanford, California and is broadly regarded as one of the best business schools in the world.The Stanford GSB offers a general management Master of Business Administration degree, the Sloan...
at the age of 24, her thesis supervised by Professors Paul Milgrom
Paul Milgrom
Paul Robert Milgrom is an American economist. He is the Shirley and Leonard Ely Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, a position he has held since 1987. Dr. Milgrom is an expert in game theory, specifically auction theory and pricing strategies...
and Donald John Roberts
Donald John Roberts
Donald John Roberts is the John H. and Irene S. Scully Professor of Economics, Strategic Management and International Business at the Stanford Graduate School of Business . He has been a member of the Stanford faculty since 1980...
.
Academic career
Athey's first position was as an Assistant, Associate Professor and Castle Krob Career Development Chair at the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
for six years before returning to Stanford's Department of Economics as Professor holding the Holbrook Working Chair for another five years.
Contributions
While she contributes to several areas of economics, her most notable contributions included a new way to model uncertainty (the subject of her doctoral dissertation) and understand investor behavior given uncertainty, and her insights into the behavior of auctions. Her work changed the way auctions are held. In the early 1990s, Athey uncovered the weaknesses of an overly lenient dispute mechanism. Starting with her experiences selling computers to the US government at auctions, Athey discovered that open auctions which resulted in frequent legal disputes followed by settlements were actually rife with collusion - auction winners shared a portion of their spoils with losers who had cooperated in bidding. Athey's proposal to use sealed bids to reduce the probabilityProbability
Probability is ordinarily used to describe an attitude of mind towards some proposition of whose truth we arenot certain. The proposition of interest is usually of the form "Will a specific event occur?" The attitude of mind is of the form "How certain are we that the event will occur?" The...
of a corrupted auction was widely adopted.
Professional Service
Susan Athey currently serves as the chief economist for MicrosoftMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
. She has served as an associate editor of several leading journals, including the American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, and the RAND Journal of Economics, as well as the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
economics panel, and she currently serves as an associate editor for Econometrica, Theoretical Economics, and Quarterly Journal of Economics. She is a past co-editor of Journal of Economics and Management Strategy. She was the chair of the program committee for the 2006 North American Winter Meetings, and she has served on numerous committees for the Econometric Society
Econometric Society
The Econometric Society is an international society for the advancement of economic theory in its relation with statistics and mathematics. It was founded on December 29, 1930 at the Stalton Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio....
, the American Economic Association, and the Committee for the Status of Women in the Economics Profession.
Awards and honors
- State Farm Dissertation Award (1995)
- Elaine Bennett Research Award (2000) (This award is given every other year to a young woman economist who has made outstanding contributions to any field.)
- John Bates Clark MedalJohn Bates Clark MedalThe John Bates Clark Medal is awarded by the American Economic Association to "that American economist under the age of forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge"...
(2007) - Fellow of the Econometric Society (2004)
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
(2008) - Stanford University Leiberman Fellowship
External links
- http://kuznets.fas.harvard.edu/~athey/index.html Athey's Homepage
- http://www.economicprincipals.com/issues/07.04.22.html Biographical article on Athey by David Warsh of Economic Principals
- http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/bmag/sbsm0708/kn-athey.html Reflections by Joshua Gans in the Stanford Business Magazine, August 2007