The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics, with approximately 23,000 members. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Review, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
History and constitution The AEA was established in 1885 in Saratoga Springs, New York by younger progressive economists trained in the German historical school, including Richard T. Ely, Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman and Katharine Coman, the only woman co-founder;Vaughn, Gerald F. (2004). "Katharine Coman: America's first woman institutional economist and a champion of education for citizenship." Journal of Economic Issues 38(4): 989–1002. Since 1900, it has been under the control of academics.The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition (2008), American Economic Association (abstract).
The Purposes of the Association are the following:
1) The encouragement of economic research, especially the historical and statistical study of the actual conditions of industrial life;
2) The issue of publications on economic subjects;
3) The encouragement of perfect freedom of economic discussion. The Association says that it takes no partisan attitude, nor does it commit its members to any position on practical economic questions. The Association publishes an academic journal in economics, namely, the American Economic Review.Cynthia Clark Northrup, "American Economic Association", The American economy: a historical encyclopedia, Volume 2, ABC-CLIO, 2004, , pp. 9–10.
Once composed primarily of college and university economics teachers, the Association, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, now attracts increasing members from business and professional groups. Today, the Association has about 23,000 members, and over half are academics. About 15% are employed in business and industry, and the remainder largely by federal, state, and local government or other not-for-profit organizations.
The leadership of the AEA has been dominated by academics from six academic institutions: Harvard, MIT, Chicago, Columbia, Stanford, and Princeton.
Activities The AEA, in conjunction with over 50 associations in related disciplines known as the Allied Social Science Associations, holds a three-day annual meeting in January to present papers on general economic subjects.American Economic Association, About the AEA Annual Meeting, accessed 27 February 2023 The annual meeting features about 500 scholarly sessions. A placement service to assist employers and job applicants begins a day before the meetings. A continuing education program is held immediately after the annual meeting. Topics vary from year to year.
The AEA publishes three economics journals: the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Literature, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives. In 2009, it began to publish four new area-specific journals, collectively American Economic Journal (AEJ), reporting on applied economics, economic policy, macroeconomics, and microeconomics. The AEA recognizes annually a Best Paper Award for papers published in each of the four areas.
The AEA also publishes AEA Papers and Proceedings each May, featuring papers presented at the AEA meetings in January. Until 2017, these papers were published in the May issue of the American Economic Review.
The AEA also produces EconLit, the AEA's electronic bibliography. It is a comprehensive index to peer-reviewed journal articles, books, book reviews, collective volume articles, working papers, and dissertations. Compiled and abstracted in a searchable format, EconLit indexes 125 years of economic literature worldwide. It follows the JEL classification codes of the Journal of Economic Literature.
The AEA sponsors RFE: Resources for Economists on the Internet, an online source available to the general public without subscription. It catalogs and annotates 2,000+ internet sites under some 97 sections and subsections. RFE is currently updated on a monthly basis.
The AEA resource, Job Openings for Economists (JOE) originated in October 1974, and lists job openings for economists. It is published electronically monthly (except January and July).
Each year, the AEA recognizes the lifetime research contributions of four economists by electing them Distinguished Fellows. The Association also awards the John Bates Clark Medal for outstanding research accomplishments in economics annually to a scholar under the age of 40; it is often referred to as the "Baby Nobel," as many of its recipients go on to become Nobel Laureates.
Association presidents , the president of the association is Katharine Abraham. 18% of presidents have been alumni and 20% faculty of Harvard University.
Past presidents of the association:
1886–92 Francis Amasa Walker 1893 Charles Franklin Dunbar 1894—95 John Bates Clark 1896—97 Henry Carter Adams 1898—99 Arthur Twining Hadley 1900—01 Richard T. Ely 1902—03 Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman 1904—05 Frank W. Taussig 1906—07 Jeremiah Jenks 1908 Simon N. Patten 1909 Davis Rich Dewey 1910 Edmund J. James 1911 Henry W. Farnam 1912 Frank A. Fetter 1913 David Kinley 1914 John H. Gray 1915 Walter F. Willcox 1916 Thomas N. Carver 1917 John R. Commons 1918 Irving Fisher 1919 Henry B. Gardner 1920 Herbert J. Davenport 1921 Jacob H. Hollander 1922 Henry Rogers Seager 1923 Carl C. Plehn 1924 Wesley C. Mitchell 1925 Allyn A. Young 1926 Edwin W. Kemmerer 1927 Thomas Sewall Adams 1928 Fred M. Taylor 1929 Edwin Francis Gay 1930 Matthew B. Hammond 1931 Ernest L. Bogart 1932 George E. Barnett 1933 William Z. Ripley 1934 Harry A. Millis 1935 John Maurice Clark 1936 Alvin S. Johnson 1937 Oliver W. Sprague 1938 Alvin H. Hansen 1939 Jacob Viner 1940 Frederick C. Mills 1941 Sumner H. Slichter 1942 Edwin G. Nourse 1943 Albert B. Wolfe 1944 Joseph S. Davis 1945 Isaiah Leo Sharfman 1946 Emanuel Goldenweiser 1947 Paul H. Douglas 1948 Joseph A. Schumpeter 1949 Howard S. Ellis 1950 Frank H. Knight 1951 John H. Williams 1952 Harold A. Innis 1953 Calvin B. Hoover 1954 Simon Kuznets 1955 John D. Black 1956 Edwin E. Witte 1957 Morris A. Copeland 1958 George W. Stocking 1959 Arthur F. Burns 1960 Theodore W. Schultz 1961 Paul A. Samuelson 1962 Edward S. Mason 1963 Gottfried Haberler 1964 George J. Stigler 1965 Joseph J. Spengler 1966 Fritz Machlup 1967 Milton Friedman 1968 Kenneth E. Boulding 1969 William J. Fellner 1970 Wassily Leontief 1971 James Tobin 1972 John Kenneth Galbraith 1973 Kenneth J. Arrow 1974 Walter W. Heller 1975 Robert Aaron Gordon 1976 Franco Modigliani 1977 Lawrence R. Klein 1978 Tjalling C. Koopmans Jacob Marschak died before taking office 1979 Robert M. Solow 1980 Moses Abramovitz 1981 William J. Baumol 1982 H. Gardner Ackley 1983 W. Arthur Lewis 1984 Charles L. Schultze 1985 Charles P. Kindleberger 1986 Alice M. Rivlin (first female president) 1987 Gary S. Becker 1988 Robert Eisner 1989 Joseph A. Pechman 1990 Gérard Debreu 1991 Thomas C. Schelling 1992 William S. Vickrey 1993 Zvi Griliches 1994 Amartya K. Sen 1995 Victor R. Fuchs 1996 Anne O. Krueger 1997 Arnold C. Harberger 1998 Robert W. Fogel 1999 D. Gale Johnson 2000 Dale W. Jorgenson 2001 Sherwin Rosen 2002 Robert E. Lucas, Jr. 2003 Peter A. Diamond 2004 Martin S. Feldstein 2005 Daniel L. McFadden 2006 George A. Akerlof 2007 Thomas J. Sargent 2008 Avinash K. Dixit 2009 Angus S. Deaton 2010 Robert E. Hall 2011 Orley C. Ashenfelter 2012 Christopher A. Sims 2013 Claudia Goldin 2014 William D. Nordhaus 2015 Richard Thaler 2016 Robert J. Shiller 2017 Alvin E. Roth 2018 Olivier Blanchard 2019 Ben Bernanke 2020 Janet Yellen 2021 David Card 2022 Christina Romer 2023 Susan Athey 2024 Janet Currie 2025 Lawrence F. Katz 2026 Katharine Abraham
Distinguished Fellows Distinguished Fellow honorees include:An AEA site listing all Distinguished Fellows and, since 2004, accompanying linked AEA statements is here. Accompanying statements for years before 2004 may be found in the following year of the American Economic Review, issue no. 3 (June), on two unnumbered front pages, also accessible electronically, as at JSTOR.
1965 Edward H. Chamberlin / Harold Hotelling / George J. Stigler 1966 Abba P. Lerner / Joseph J. Spengler 1967 Alvin H. Hansen / Fritz Machlup / Jacob Marschak 1968 Milton Friedman / Lloyd A. Metzler 1969 Kenneth E. Boulding / Alexander Gerschenkron/ Ludwig E. von Mises 1970 William J. Fellner / William Arthur Lewis 1971 Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen / Tjalling C. Koopmans/ Wassily Leontief 1972 Robert A. Gordon/ Theodore W. Schultz/ Carl S. Shoup/ James Tobin 1973 John Kenneth Galbraith / Tibor Scitovsky 1974 Kenneth J. Arrow 1975 Walter W. Heller 1976 Oskar Morgenstern / Herbert A. Simon 1977 Leonid Hurwicz / Harry G. Johnson / Simon Kuznets / Franco Modigliani 1978 Lawrence R. Klein / Richard A. Musgrave / William S. Vickrey 1979 Margaret G. Reid / Ronald H. Coase 1980 Solomon Fabricant / Charles P. Kindleberger / Robert M. Solow 1981 Moses Abramovitz / Edward F. Denison / H. Gregg Lewis 1982 Joe S. Bain / William J. Baumol / Gerard Debreu 1983 Gardner Ackley / Abram Bergson / James M. Buchanan 1984 Evsey D. Domar / Albert O. Hirschman 1985 Joseph Pechman / Paul Rosenstein-Rodan / Charles L. Shultze 1987 Arthur S. Goldberger / Alice M. Rivlin / Thomas C. Schelling 1988 Gary S. Becker / Hendrik S. Houthakker / Roy Radner 1989 Robert Eisner / Jacob Mincer / Guy H. Orcutt 1990 Victor R. Fuchs / Merton H. Miller 1991 Irving B. Kravis / Herbert E. Scarf 1992 Robert Dorfman / Vernon L. Smith 1993 Lionel W. McKenzie / Anna J. Schwartz 1994 Zvi Griliches / John C. Harsanyi / Kelvin J. Lancaster 1995 Geoffrey H. Moore / Walter Oi / Amartya Sen 1996 Armen A. Alchian / Robert A. Mundell 1997 Martin Bronfenbrenner / Anne O. Krueger / Gordon Tullock 1998 Arnold C. Harberger / Alan Heston / Robert Summers 1999 David Cass / John Chipman / Robert W. Fogel 2000 Jack Hirshleifer / D. Gale Johnson / Edmund S. Phelps 2001 Rudiger W. Dornbusch / Dale W. Jorgenson / Allan H. Meltzer 2002 Clive Granger / Sherwin Rosen / Arnold Zellner 2003 Irma Adelman / Jagdish Bhagwati / Robert E. Lucas / T.N. Srinivasan 2004 William A. Brock / Peter A. Diamond / William D. Nordhaus / George P. Shultz 2005 Stanley L. Engerman / Martin Feldstein / Michael Rothschild / Hugo F. Sonnenschein 2006 Donald J. Brown / Richard A. Easterlin / Daniel McFadden / Robert B. Wilson 2007 George A. Akerlof / Orley C. Ashenfelter / Lloyd S. Shapley / Oliver E. Williamson 2008 Erwin Diewert / Dale Mortensen / Charles Plott / Thomas J. Sargent 2009 Avinash K. Dixit / Ronald Jones / Douglass North / John Pencavel 2010 Angus Deaton / Elhanan Helpman / David Kreps / Martin Shubik 2011 Alan Blinder / William Brainard / Robert E. Hall / Daniel Kahneman / David Wise 2012 Truman F. Bewley / Marc L. Nerlove / Neil Wallace / Janet L. Yellen 2013 Harold Demsetz / Stanley Fischer / Jerry Hausman / Paul Joskow / Christopher A. Sims 2014 Robert J. Barro / Gregory C. Chow / Claudia Goldin / Robert J. Gordon / Richard Zeckhauser 2015 Theodore Bergstrom / Gary Chamberlain / Thomas Rothenberg / Hal Varian 2016 Richard Freeman / Glenn Loury / Julio Rotemberg / Isabel Sawhill 2017 James Heckman / Charles Manski / Robert A. Pollak / Nancy Stokey 2018 Henry Aaron / Francine Blau / Joel Mokyr / Richard Posner 2019 Oliver Hart / Edward Lazear / Ariel Pakes / Margaret Slade 2020 Katharine Abraham / Shelly Lundberg / Paul Milgrom / Whitney Newey 2021 Alan Auerbach / Rebecca Blank / Anne Case / Robert Townsend 2022 Sadie T.M. Alexander / David Card / Barry Eichengreen / James Poterba / Carmen Reinhart 2023 Guillermo Calvo / Drew Fudenberg / Olivia S. Mitchell / Maurice Obstfeld / Christina Romer 2024 Susan Athey / William A. Darity Jr. / Bronwyn Hall / John Haltiwanger / Margaret Simms
See also