Susan Athey honored for innovative market research
Susan Athey, the Economics of Technology Professor, received the 2019 CME Group-MSRI Prize in Innovative Quantitative Applications in recognition of her contributions to the field.
The award honors scholars for their original and innovative concepts in mathematical, statistical, or computational methods for the study of markets’ behavior and global economics.
“Susan is an outstanding scholar, economist, and colleague, and it is fitting that her work is recognized with such an esteemed honor,” said Jonathan Levin, the Philip H. Knight Professor and dean of Stanford GSB. “Her research and scholarship have profoundly advanced the study of digital markets and the economics of the internet.”
Athey’s 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 internet search, online advertising, the news media, the application of digital technology to social impact applications, and timber auctions. She has advised companies and governments; for example, designing the system used to sell public timber in British Columbia for the last 15 years.
Athey, one of the first “tech economists,” 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. She is also a professor of economics, by courtesy, at the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).
Athey is the 14th recipient of the CME-MSRI prize, which was established in 2006, and the fourth recipient from Stanford GSB. Paul R. Milgrom, a SIEPR senior fellow and professor of economics, by courtesy, received the award in 2017. Robert Wilson, the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emeritus, was named the recipient in 2016. David M. Kreps, the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emeritus, was honored in 2007.
Recipients of the prize receive a commemorative bronze medallion and a $50,000 cash award for their contributions, given by the CME Group, a diverse derivatives marketplace, and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, a center for collaborative research in the mathematical sciences.
A version of this story was originally pubished by the Stanford Graduate School of Business