Abbey Stemler

Abbey Stemler is an associate professor of business law and ethics at Indiana University and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She is a leading scholar on the regulation of the sharing economy and platform-based businesses. In particular, her research aims to expose the evolving realities of Internet-based innovations and find ways to effectively regulate them without hindering their beneficial uses. As she sees it, many modern firms inhabit a world that operates under alien physics—where free is often costly and “smart” is not always wise. She therefore employs tools and insights from economics, behavioral science, regulatory theory, and rhetoric to understand how we, as a society, can better protect consumers, privacy, and democracy.

Abbey is also a practicing attorney, entrepreneur, and consultant for governments and multinational organizations such as the World Bank Group.