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Susan AtheyAmerican economist
Date of Birth: 29.11.1970
Country:  USA |
Content:
Susan Athey: American Economist
Susan Carlton Athey is an American economist, currently serving as a professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to her appointment at Stanford, she worked as a professor at Harvard University. Athey is known for her pioneering work on closed auctions, which aimed to minimize the possibility of collusion among participants.
Early Life and Education
Susan Athey was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Rockville, Maryland. She attended Duke University at the age of 16, where she specialized in mathematics, economics, and computer science. During her time at Duke, Athey collaborated with Professor Robert Marshall on research related to auction theory.
Career
Athey actively participated in various activities at Duke University, including being a key member of a student sorority and leading the local field hockey club. At the age of 24, Athey earned her doctoral degree in business from Stanford Graduate School of Business under the guidance of professors Paul Milgrom and Donald John Roberts.
After completing her dissertation, Athey joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a faculty member and worked there for six years before returning to Stanford, where she held a professorship in economics for five years. Athey's research interests spanned various fields of economics, with notable contributions in modeling under uncertain parameters and analyzing investor behavior under incomplete information. She also conducted research on behavioral aspects of auction activities.
Athey's analysis of decision-making under incomplete and uncertain data incorporated optimal decision-making schemes that depend monotonically on specific parameters. Furthermore, Athey successfully demonstrated the applicability of John Nash's findings to auction analysis. It is widely recognized that Athey has significantly influenced the principles underlying auctions.
In the early 1990s, Athey identified weaknesses in existing auction mechanisms through her analysis of government auctions for computer equipment purchases. She discovered instances where winners of auctions colluded with losers, sharing the benefits of victory as compensation for their assistance. Athey proposed the use of closed auction systems to prevent or significantly reduce the likelihood of this technique being employed. Her recommendations were later adopted, and closed auctions became the de facto standard.
Throughout her career, Athey has served as an assistant editor for esteemed scientific publications such as the American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, and RAND Journal of Economics. She has also held leadership positions in prominent scientific organizations and projects, including serving on the program committee for the North American Winter Meetings in 2006.
