American Economic Association

American Economic Association
The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals. There are some 23,000 members.
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; since 1900 it has been under the control of academics.
The purposes of the Association are: 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 as such will take no partisan attitude, nor will it commit its members to any position on practical economic questions. The Association publishes one of the most prestigious academic journals in economics, namely, the American Economic Review.
Once composed primarily of college and university teachers of economics, the Association, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, now attracts an increasing number of members from business and professional groups. Today the membership is about 23,000, over half of whom 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.
As an organization, the AEA has been very hierarchical, as the leadership has been dominated by academics from six academic institutions: Harvard, MIT, Chicago, Columbia, Stanford, and Princeton.
Activities
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. The annual meeting features about 500 scholarly sessions. A placement service to assist employers and job applicants begins a day prior to 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 from around the world. 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 subsubsections. 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 annually the John Bates Clark Medal for outstanding research accomplishments in economics 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 Susan Athey, and the president-elect is Janet Currie. As of 2021, 18% of presidents have been alumni and 20% faculty of Harvard University.
Past presidents of the association include:
1886–92 Francis Amasa Walker
1893 Charles Franklin Dunbar
1894—95 John B. 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 R. 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
Distinguished Fellows
Distinguished Fellow honorees include:
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
See also
European Economic Association
International Economic Association
Political Economy Club
References
External links
1885 establishments in New York (state)
1885 in economics
Business and finance professional associations
Economics societies
Learned societies of the United States
Organizations based in Nashville, Tennessee
Organizations established in 1885
Professional associations based in the United States