Susan A they , an economics professor at Harvard University, has won the John Bates Clark Medal. The American Economics Association awards the Clark Medal to the most promising economists. And it may be even harder to win than a Nobel Prize in economics. The Clark Medal is given every two years. And the winner has to be under the age of forty. Susan Athey is thirty-six years old and is the first woman to win the Clark Medal in its sixty-year history. No woman has yet won the Nobel economics prize which has been awarded since 1969.
Past winners received the Clark Medal for a single area of research. But Susan Athey was honored for her work across several areas of economics. Her work has dealt with both applied theory and empirical studies. In other words, it has dealt both with the complex methods that help economists do their jobs and with economic problems in the real world.
One of the real-world situations that she has studied is government auction. Auctions can be used to sell something like the right to cut down trees on public forest lands. Or they can be used to buy something that a government department needs, like computers. In both cases, bidders (出价人) compete against one another to win the auction.
For five years, Susan A they worked with the British Columbia Ministry of Forests in Canada to design a system for timber (木材) auctions. That system has helped the Canadians collect over one billion dollars. It has also helped deal with a trade disagreement because the United States accused (控告) Canada of proviking unfair support to its timber industry. Also, Susan A they has studied how bidders in an auction can control the competition.

哈佛大学经济学教授Susan Athey获得了John Bates Clark 奖。美国经济协会给最有前途的经济学家颁发Clark奖。它甚至比Nobel更难获得。Clark奖每2年颁发一次，获奖者的年龄不得超过40岁。Suan Athey今年36岁，而且在过去的60年里她是第一个获奖的女性。自从1969年Noble经济学奖设立以来还没有女性获奖。
过去获得Clark奖的人都专注于单一的研究领域。但是Susan的获奖著作跨越了多个经济学领域。她的研究成果同时涉及了供给理论和经验研究。换句话说，她的研究既是帮助经济学家工作的综合理论又能解决现实的经济问题。
政府招标是她曾经研究过的一个现实的（经济）环境。招标通常是出售某些东西，比如公有土地上树林的砍伐权.或者采购一些政府部门需要的东西，比如电脑。以上两种情况，竞标人彼此竞争来赢得标的。
Suan与在加拿大的大不列颠哥伦比亚林业局共事5年，设计了林木竞标系统。这个系统帮助加拿大人获得了十亿美元的收入，还有助于解决美国控告加拿大向林业提供不公平补贴而引发的争端。同时，Susan还研究了竞标中的投标人怎样才能控制竞标。