January 16, 2024

To: Members of the American Economic Association
From: Peter L. Rousseau, Secretary-Treasurer
Subject: AEA Member Announcements and Annual Meeting Highlights

The 2024 ASSA Meeting took place in San Antonio for the first time and proved to be an engaging and productive conference for attendees. Sixty-four associations came together to hold more than 500 scientific sessions including paper sessions, panel sessions, presidential addresses, poster sessions, and lectures.  There were also many special events including receptions, luncheons, and breakfast meetings. Get an inside look at some of the 2024 sessions, attendees, content, and lively discussions by viewing the ASSA Photo Gallery at https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2024-photos and watching the webcasts. 

The AEA thanks the 2024 AEA Program Committee members for its efforts in reviewing and selecting sessions and papers for the meeting.  The committee was formed by AEA President Janet Currie, and included individuals from a broad range of institutions and fields, resulting in a diverse and interesting program.  View the members of the committee here: https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/committees/program-committee. 

More than 20 AEA sessions were live streamed during the meeting.  If you weren’t able to attend the meeting, we especially encourage you to view the session “Becoming an Effective Bystander in the Profession” which was led by Susanna Borgelt from Right to Be _______, a nonprofit organization with the goal of building a world where everyone has the right to be who they are, wherever they are.  Borgelt provided an effective session specifically tailored to incidents that are more likely to occur in the economics profession.  The video of the session is available for one week only.  Please make plans to watch it now at https://www.aeaweb.org/webcasts/2024/becoming-an-effective-bystander. After watching the video, please take the survey that can be found at https://www.aeaweb.org/webcasts/2024/becoming-an-effective-bystander/resources and be sure to check out the other related resources.  Thank you in advance for taking the time to learn how you can make a difference when disrespect or harassment occurs in the profession.  Please feel free to share this resource with your colleagues. 

Many other great sessions are now available on demand at https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/webcasts/2024.  Just a few of the highlights include:

• AEA Distinguished Lecture - "The Economics of the Global Energy Challenge" (Michael Greenstone)
• AEA Presidential Address - "Design and Analysis of Complex Experiments to Evaluate Social Impact" (Susan Athey)
• AEA/AFA Joint Luncheon - "Inflation" (Ivan Werning)
• Overcoming Obstacles in the Publishing Process: Advice for Authors and Editors (Jhacova Williams presiding)
• Working to Change the Climate in Economics (Janet Currie presiding)
• New Perspectives on the Economics of Mental Health (Janet Currie presiding)
• Where the Economy is Headed (Catherine Rampell presiding)

Webcasts from 2009 through 2023 are also available at https://www.aeaweb.org/webcasts/.   

Stay tuned for AEA Poster Session Videos featuring AEA interviews with select 2024 poster presenters who discuss their research and the broader implications of their work. Video highlights will be available soon at https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/videos. 

Call for Sessions and Papers for the 2025 AEA Annual Meeting. The deadline for submissions to be considered for the January 2025 AEA Annual Meeting program in San Francisco is April 1 for individual papers and April 15 for complete sessions. The submission portal will open on March 1 at https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/submissions.

EconHarmony helps prospective individual paper submitters for the AEA Annual Meeting find others with similar interests who might join them to form a complete session submission and provides an opportunity to volunteer as a session chair. Thirty-three percent of submitted complete sessions and 13% of submitted individual papers appeared in sessions on the 2024 AEA Annual Meeting program. EconHarmony will open on February 1 at https://www.aeaweb.org/econharmony/.

AEA Journal Transitions and Changes. The AEA Executive Committee is pleased to announce the appointment of Ayşegül Şahin of the University of Texas at Austin as the new lead editor for the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics beginning January 2024. Professor Şahin was appointed after an extensive search that included input from the membership. The Association thanks outgoing AEJ: Macro Editor Simon Gilchrist for his outstanding efforts in making the AEA journals among the most respected scholarly outlets in economics.

The AEA will phase out print journals over the next year by no longer offering print subscriptions for members and institutional subscribers as of February 1.  Existing print subscriptions for members and institutions will be honored through January 2025 but will be unable to be renewed.

In line with most other leading journals, the AEA will end payments to referees for reviews invited on or after February 1.

Collecting publication fees from those benefiting most from the AEA publications program distributes costs of the program more equitably than raising submission fees. With this in mind, the AEA will implement a page charge of $15 per typeset page for published articles submitted after February 1, to be paid by authors, and with provisions to waive the fee under certain circumstances. This page charge will not apply to formally solicited manuscripts (such as Presidential addresses) and will not include articles in the Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Economic Perspectives, or AEA Papers and Proceedings.   

Check out the programs, services, resources, and committees of the AEA in the resources section of the website where you can view and download flyers and brochures. Go to https://www.aeaweb.org/resources/brochures.  To stay informed, follow the @AEAInformation account on X (formerly known as Twitter) which is used to share information throughout the year. Content related to AEA publications will continue to be posted @AEAjournals.