Susan Athey is the Economics of Technology Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Her current research focuses on the economics of digitization, marketplace design, and the intersection of econometrics and machine learning. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Science and is the recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded by the American Economics Association to the economist under 40 who has made the greatest contributions to thought and knowledge. In 2022, she took leave from Stanford to serve as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division.
Professor Athey 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. As one of the first “tech economists,” she served as consulting chief economist for Microsoft Corporation for six years and has served on the boards of multiple private and public technology firms. She was a founding associate director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.