Executive Committee Meeting of April 14, 2017
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AEA Papers and Proceedings 2018, 108: 621–627 https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.108.621 Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Committee Chicago, IL April 14, 2017 The first meeting of the 2017 Executive extensive discussion of the importance and likely Committee was called to order at 10:00 am on lasting effects of the research contributions of April 14, 2017 in the Malpensa Room of the candidates, the Honors and Awards Committee Hyatt Regency O’Hare Hotel, Chicago, IL. and Executive Committee, acting together as an Members present were: David Autor, Olivier Electoral College, VOTED to award the 2017 Blanchard, Nicholas Bloom, John Campbell, John Bates Clark Medal to Dave Donaldson. It Esther Duflo, Erica Field, Hilary Hoynes, was also VOTED to designate Philippe Aghion Rachel Kranton, Alan Krueger, Valerie Ramey, and Ernst Fehr as Foreign Honorary Members of Alvin Roth, Peter Rousseau, Robert Shiller, the Association. and Richard Thaler. Joel Sobel Chair and Nancy Stokey participated in part of( the )meet- Report of the Nominating Committee ing and Daron Acemoglu, Lawrence Katz, and Nordhaus .—Nordhaus, who chaired the Ariel Pakes participated by phone as mem- Committee( ) consisting also of Marianne bers of the Honors and Awards Committee. Bertrand, Dora( Costa, Dennis Epple, Drew William Nordhaus Chair participated in part Fudenberg, Malmendier, Cecilia Rouse, and of the meeting and (Ulrike) Malmendier partici- Hal Varian , reported nominations for the indi- pated by phone as members of the Nominating cated offices) in 2018: Vice-President: Susan Committee. Anil Kashyap Chair participated Athey, Pinelopi Goldberg, Robert Moffitt, and in part of the meeting and( Amy) Finkelstein Michael Woodford; Executive Committee: participated by phone as members of the Ad Matthew Gentzkow, Adriana Lleras-Muney, Hoc Committee on AEA Journals. General Bruce Sacerdote, and Betsey Stevenson. The Counsel Terry Calvani, Director of Finance and Nominating Committee and the Executive Administration Barbara Fiser, and Convention Committee, acting together as an Electoral Manager Gwyn Loftis also attended. College, then VOTED to nominate Ben Bernanke Roth thanked past President Robert Shiller for as President-Elect, and VOTED to recognize his service, and presented Shiller with a certifi- James Heckman, Charles Manski, Robert Pollak, cate as Distinguished Fellow of the Association. and Nancy Stokey as Distinguished Fellows of He welcomed the newly elected members of the the Association. 2017 Executive Committee: Olivier Blanchard, President-Elect; Alan Krueger and Valerie Update on New Lecture for the AEA Annual Ramey, Vice Presidents; and Nicholas Bloom Meeting Named after a Woman Roth .—Roth and Erica Field. The minutes of the January 5, reported on a discussion with the( leadership) of 2017 meeting of the Executive Committee were the American Finance Association about the then approved. possibility of the AEA holding a new named lecture in the same midday time period as the Report of the Committee on Honors and long-standing AEA AFA joint luncheon, includ- Awards Sobel .—Sobel explained that nomi- ing a counterproposal/ from AFA to continue nations for( the Clark) Medal were solicited from the luncheon but to name its featured lecture in economics department heads of major research honor of a female economist. After some discus- universities. The Honors and Awards Committee sion, it was VOTED to keep the AEA AFA lun- Sobel Chair , Acemoglu, Raj Chetty, Katz, cheon event apart from the AEA’s new/ named Pakes,( Stokey,[ ] and Michael Woodford also lecture. Discussion then turned to the timing examined lists of eligible scholars to ensure) that of the AEA’s named lecture and whether it was no viable candidate was overlooked. After an premature to determine whether the lecture 621 622 AEA PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS MAY 2018 be designated in honor of a single individual, of the AER. It was then VOTED to accept the should honor a different individual each year, committee’s recommendations and to appoint a or whether waiting should be reconsidered as an search committee to identify a lead Editor for option. It was then VOTED to form a new ad discussion and vote by the Executive Committee hoc committee to consider further how to honor in fall of 2017. a female economist in a manner equivalent to the status of the current Richard T. Ely lecture. Discussion of Implications on Taking Stances on Government Policies and Actions Report of the Ad Hoc Search Committee Rousseau .—Rousseau reported on a few for a New Editor of the American Economic occasions( )when members of the Executive Journal: Macroeconomics Bernanke .—Shiller Committee had asked if the AEA should be appointed a search committee( in August) 2016 to taking official positions on various issues that recommend a replacement for Richard Rogerson, might have direct or peripheral impact on econ- who would be stepping down as Editor of AEJ: omists, as many scholarly societies do. The Macro in December 2017. Bernanke, Chair of questions ranged from signing on to letters urg- the search committee consisting also of Janice ing the President to rescind the ban on entry to Eberly, Arvind Krishnamurthy,( John Leahy, and the United States for some from a targeted set James Stock , described the process the commit- of countries to commenting about statements tee members) used to identify and screen pros- questioning the veracity of statistics published pects to succeed Rogerson, including requesting by the Bureau of the Census and the Bureau nominations from the AEA membership. After of Labor Statistics. Rousseau noted that the discussion, it was VOTED to appoint Simon Association has two active standing commit- Gilchrist to a three-year term as Editor effective tees the Committee on Government Relations January 1, 2018. and (the Committee on Economic Statistics charged with addressing threats to economists’) Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on interests, and that the committees understand Implementation of a New Publications Outlet for and act within the boundaries stated in the AEA Shorter Contributions Kashyap .—Kashyap charter about activities in the political domain. reported that the Ad Hoc( Committee) consist- Calvani then described the risks of taking stands ing also of Duflo, Amy Finkelstein, (Rousseau, on more politically charged issues. After some and Jose Scheinkman was formed after the discussion, it was generally agreed that the Executive Committee )voted in January 2017 standing committees would monitor conditions to start a new outlet that would focus on pub- in Washington and that the lines of communica- lishing shorter papers of great scientific interest tion between the Executive Committee and the on a faster time-line. The charge of the com- committees would remain open for addressing mittee was to lay out some of the details of the concerns as they arise. implementation of such an outlet. To that end, the committee recommended that the journal Report of the Audit Committee Kranton .— be constituted as a standalone entity with its The Audit Committee Kranton( Chair) , identity linked to the AER, and be named AER: Campbell, and Bloom ( met with[ the] Shorts Communications or the like, with the Association’s auditors, Frasier,) Dean, and final /name to be determined later. There would Howard, by teleconference on March 28, 2017. be a lead Editor, initially two Coeditors, and The Committee concluded there are no material a large Editorial Board to cover the discipline difficulties with the Association’s accounting satisfactorily. The central feature of the jour- procedures or financial controls. The auditors nal would be for a typical paper to make one reported a clean audit to the Committee. Acting important point concisely, and that papers would on the recommendation of the Committee, it was accordingly conform to a specified word count VOTED to accept the audit for 2016. and number of exhibits to be determined by the editorial team. Emphasis would be on publishing Report of the Advisory Committee on very high quality articles with quick turnarounds Editorial Appointments Autor .—Autor and minimal revisions, and would thus be dif- Chair presented the set of editorial( ) appoint- ferent from what was the Shorter Papers section ments( )that the Advisory Committee was for- VOL. 108 MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 623 warding to the Executive Committee for action. term as Coeditor of AEJ: Microeconomics Acting on Duflo’s recommendation, it was then ending in August 2020, and to appoint Costas VOTED to appoint Emi Nakamura to an initial Arkolakis to an initial three-year term on the three-year term as Coeditor of the American Board of Editors starting in July 2017 and end- Economic Review starting in July 2017 and ing in June 2020. ending in June 2020, to appoint Manuel It was then VOTED to relax the institutional Amador and Henrik Kleven to initial three-year constraint on the Editorial Boards of the AEJs terms as Coeditors starting in January 2018 from four members from a single institution to and ending in December 2020, to reappoint five, with no more than four drawing from a sin- Roland Bénabou to a second three-year term as gle unit within an institution. The restriction that Coeditor starting in October 2017 and ending in a new Editor or Coeditor cannot be appointed September 2020, and to reappoint Debraj Ray from an institution at which an existing Editor or to a third three-year term as Coeditor starting in Coeditor currently sits was retained. It was also July 2017