American Economic Association

Learned society in the field of economics

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.

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. 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.