Susan Athey Is Awarded 2007 John Bates Clark Medal

April 20, 2007

Washington, DC - Susan C. Athey, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and Senior Consultant at Criterion Auctions, L.L.C. has been named the 2007 John Bates Clark Medalist. The John Bates Clark Medal is awarded biannually by the American Economics Association to the "American economist under the age of forty who is judged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge." Professor Athey is the first woman to have received this prestigious award. A list of previous medalists can be found on AEA’s website.

Of the 29 previous winners of the John Bates Clark Medal, 11 have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in economics. Others have played major roles in government: Both Martin Feldstein and Joseph Stiglitz have headed the president's Council of Economic Advisors, and former Harvard President Lawrence Summers served as Treasury Secretary. Steve Levitt, co-author of the bestselling book "Freakonomics," was also a Clark Medalist.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Professor Athey "has been a rising star in economics since her doctoral dissertation — on a new way to model uncertainty — created a stir on the academic job market in 1995, leading the nation's top economics departments to court her. She ultimately chose the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., but later moved to Stanford and then last year returned to Cambridge to join Harvard. She is one of a number of female economists who have risen to prominence in recent years."

Susan Athey joined Criterion in May 2006. She is an expert on auctions, statistic methods in auctions, bid-rigging, and industrial organization. Much of her current research focuses on auction theory, econometrics, and issues relating to market structure and market power.