Short answers, pulled from the story.
Susan Athey is known for her foundational research on auctions, decision-making under uncertainty, and the economics of digital technology. She was the first woman to win the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded in 2007, and pioneered the field of tech economics alongside Hal Varian of Google.
Yes. Susan Athey was the first female winner of the John Bates Clark Medal, which she received in 2007. The medal is awarded by the American Economic Association to the American economist under forty judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought.
Athey, working with Jonathan Levin and Enrique Seira, used data from U.S. Forest Service timber auctions to compare open and sealed-bid auction formats. Their paper "Comparing Open and Sealed Bid Auctions: Theory and Evidence from Timber Auctions" found that the type of auction participation matters more to outcomes than what happens during the bidding process itself.
Susan Athey founded the Golub Capital Social Impact Lab at Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2019. The lab applies machine learning, artificial intelligence, and digital adaptive learning to improve programs in education, health, and government, using a technique Athey describes as a tech-firm toolkit.
Athey's research found that social media advertising campaigns aimed at influencing beliefs about COVID-19 vaccine efficacy had an average cost of $3.41 per person influenced. With an estimated vaccine cost of $5.68, the study provided empirical evidence for the cost-effectiveness of social media outreach as a public health tool.
Susan Athey held faculty positions at MIT, where she began as an assistant professor and taught for six years, and at Harvard University, where she was a professor of economics until 2012. She is currently the Economics of Technology Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she also received her Ph.D. in 1995.