Susan Athey is the Economics of Technology Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business.She received her bachelor’s degree from Duke University and her PhD from Stanford, and sheholds an honorary doctorate from Duke University.
She is an elected member of the National Academy of Science, and in 2007 she received the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded to the best
American economist under the age of 40. She previously taught at the economics departments at MIT, Stanford and Harvard.
Her current research focuses on the economics of digitization, marketplace design, and the intersection of econometrics and machine learning. She has worked on several application areas, including timber auctions, internet search, online advertising, the news media, and the application of digital technology to social impact applications. As one of the first “tech economists,” she served as consulting chief economist for Microsoft Corporation for six years, and now serves on the boards of Expedia, Lending Club, Rover, Turo, and Ripple, as well as non-profit Innovations for Poverty Action.
She also serves as a long-term advisor to the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, helping architect and implement their auction-based pricing system. She is the founding director of the Golub Capital Social Impact Lab at Stanford GSB, and associate director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.
