American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings 101 (May 2011): 677–683 http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi 10.1257/aer.101.3.677 =

Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Committee Denver, CO January 6, 2011

The second meeting of the 2010 Executive the Meeting of the Executive Committee of Committee was called to order by President January 2, 2010. Although the first sentence Robert Hall at 10:00 am on January 6, 2011, reports that the meeting was held on January 2, in the Windows Room of the Denver Sheraton 2009, it was actually held on January 2, 2010. Hotel. Members present were: Daron Acemoglu, Siegfried reviewed the schedule of future Orley Ashenfelter, Susan Athey by tele- meetings: Chicago, January 6–8, 2012 Friday, conference , Alan Auerbach, David( Autor, Saturday, and Sunday ; San Diego, January( Marianne Bertrand,) Janet Currie, Steven Davis, 4–6, 2013 Friday, Saturday,) and Sunday ; Angus Deaton, Avinash Dixit, Esther Duflo, Philadelphia,( January 3–5, 2014 Friday,) Janice Eberly, Penny Goldberg, Jonathan Saturday, and Sunday ; Boston, January( 3–5, Gruber, Robert Hall, Robert Moffitt, Andrew 2015 Saturday, Sunday,) and Monday ; San Postlewaite, Valerie Ramey, John Siegfried, Francisco,( January 3–5, 2016 Sunday, Monday,) and Richard Thaler. Also attending were: Tuesday ; Chicago, January 6–8,( 2017 Friday, Chris Sims, newly elected President-elect; Saturday,) and Sunday ; and Atlanta, January( Timothy Bresnahan and Lars Peter Hansen, 5–7, 2018 Friday, Saturday,) and Sunday . It newly elected Vice-Presidents; and Michael was decided( to ask New York, San Diego, )and Woodford, newly elected Executive Committee Philadelphia about their interest in the 2019 member. Attending parts of the meeting to give meetings. reports were: Andrew Abel, Chair of the Ad Registration for the 2011 meetings in Denver Hoc Committee on the Annual Meetings; Ngina was 9,990. The previous peaks since 1970 Chiteji, Chair of the Committee on the Status of were 10,829 in San Francisco 2009( , 9,483 in) Minority Groups in the Economics Profession; Atlanta 2010 , and 9,008 in Chicago( ) 2007 ; Barbara Fraumeni, Chair of the Committee 6,400 peak-night( ) hotel rooms were booked( in) on the Status of Women in the Economics Denver, in contrast to 6,739 in Atlanta 2010 . Profession CSWEP ; Michael Watts, Chair To reduce excess demand for rooms( in ) the of the Committee( ) on Economic Education; headquarters hotel, in 2011 a $15 per night Daniel Newlon, AEA Director of Government premium was charged for rooms in the Denver Relations; and Douglas Steigerwald, former Sheraton. The charge was insufficient to elimi- Director of the Association’s Summer Program. nate excess demand for headquarters rooms; Associate Secretary-Treasurer Peter Rousseau, plans to increase the premium for headquarters General Counsel Terry Calvani, and staff mem- hotel rooms in 2012 were affirmed. bers Mary Kay Akerman, Michelle DeBlasi, A new Association membership manage- Dru Ekwurzel, Barbara Fiser, Marlene Hight, ment program was introduced in July 2010. It Regina Montgomery, Steve Stelling, and Jane activates new memberships immediately upon Voros also attended. enrollment, permits the resetting of forgot- Hall welcomed the newly elected members of ten passwords online, is synchronized with the the 2011 Executive Committee and noted that Membership Directory, and produces timely this was the last meeting for Dixit, Currie as and lower cost reports. Vice-President, but not as Editor of the Journal( Through persistent communication with of Economic Literature , Thaler, Athey, and members, over the past several years the Eberly. He thanked them) for their service. The Association has reduced the e-mail communica- minutes of the April 23, 2010, meeting were tions bounce-back percentage from about nine approved as written. percent to a current level of two percent. About Report of the Secretary Siegfried . Siegfried four percent of current members do not have reported an error in the published( Minutes) of an e-mail address of record; thus, blast e-mail 677

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announcements now reach about 94 percent of The spring 2011 meeting of the Executive members. Committee will be held in Chicago on April 15 In December 2010, the two former Association at a hotel near O’Hare Airport. websites—an “administrative” site in Nashville, Report of the Advisory Committee on Editorial and a “publications” site in Pittsburgh—were Appointments Athey . Athey reported that her integrated. The integrated website provides sim- committee is ( responsible) for recommending pler navigation opportunities for members and reappointment of incumbent general editors visitors to the site. whose terms are nearing their end. Following The decade-long decline in membership has the recommendation of the Committee, it was ended. Membership has been flat for four years, VOTED to reappoint David Autor as Editor of numbering 16,832 in October 2007, 16,790 in the Journal of Economic Perspectives for a sec- September 2008, 16,797 in September 2009, ond three-year term ending in December 2014. and 16,773 in September 2010. There was even Reappointment of General Counsel a modest increase to 17,036 in November 2010. Siegfried . Following Siegfried’s recom- The Association’s Conflict of Interest (mendation,) it was VOTED to reappoint Terry Policy requires the Minutes of the Executive Calvani for a three-year term as the Association’s Committee to record the names of persons who General Counsel ending in December 2013. have an actual or potential financial or positional Report of the Editor of the American conflict of interest, the nature of the interest, Economic Review Moffitt . Moffitt referred action taken to decide whether a conflict exists, to his written report,( published) in the 2011 and the final decision as to whether there is an Supplemental Proceedings. He reported an actual conflict of interest. The Association’s eleven percent increase in submissions from Budget and Finance Committee is delegated to 2008 to 2010. Moffitt announced that in 2011 investigate potential conflicts of interest, and the AER shifts from four to six issues per year, determines whether an actual conflict of inter- which should decrease the publication back- est exists. In 2010 Daron Acemoglu identified a log of accepted manuscripts. A reduction in potential conflict as a member of the Executive line length and increase in font should also Committee on the Econometric Society, as a make it easier to read the Review. Ninety-five coeditor of Econometrica, and as a coeditor percent of submissions receive a first decision of the NBER Macroannual. Orley Ashenfelter within five months. Moffitt also drew attention identified a potential conflict as president of the to an appendix in his annual report containing American Law and Economics Association. a report by P. J. Glandon describing an effort Susan Athey identified a potential conflict as to replicate a sample of empirical studies pub- a member of the Council of the Econometrica lished in the AER. Society. Alan Auerbach identified a poten- Moffitt announced that Penny Goldberg tial conflict as a consultant to the US Social would assume the editorship of the Review on Security Administration. Janet Currie identi- January 8, 2011. He thanked Acting Managing fied a potential conflict as a program director at Editor Steve Stelling for his efforts in publish- NBER and as a member of the Editorial Board ing the AER during 2010, and announced that of the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Valerie Stelling has been promoted to Managing Editor. Ramey identified a potential conflict as a mem- Following Moffitt and Goldberg’s recommen- ber of the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory dation, it was VOTED to appoint Debraj Ray Committee. John Siegfried identified potential to a three-year term as a coeditor of the AER conflicts for children working at the annual ending in June 2014. It was also VOTED to re- ASSA meeting, and as Chair of the Budget and appoint Gary Charness, Dora Costa, Miguel Finance Committee, which determines raises Costa-Gomes, Hanming Fang, David Green,

for Association employees who are econo- Botond K​ o˝ ​szegi, Rohini Pande, Nina Pavcnik, mists. After reviewing the potential conflicts and Christopher Timmins to three-year terms and mechanisms to avoid actual conflicts e.g., on the Board of Editors ending in December Siegfried does not participate in Budget ( and 2013, and to appoint Gautam Gowrisankaran, Finance Committee decisions on economists’ Ali Hortacsu, Fiona Scott Morton, and Eric raises , the Budget and Finance Committee con- Verhoogan to three-year terms on the Board of cluded) that there were no actual conflicts. Editors ending in December 2013.

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The year 2011 marks the 100th anniversary Report of the Editor of the Journal of of the American Economic Review. To recog- Economic Perspectives Autor . Autor referred nize its centenary, Moffitt organized six special to his report, which is ( published) in the 2011 papers to be published in February 2011. After Supplemental Proceedings. He thanked 100 years of publishing, in February 2011( the Timothy Taylor and Ann Norman for their help Review moves from a quarterly to a bimonthly in publishing the Journal. He noted that the publication schedule. The first special paper, by 100th issue of the JEP would be published dur- Ken Arrow, Doug Bernheim,) Martin Feldstein, ing 2011 and that it will include articles by the Dan McFadden, Jim Poterba, and Bob Solow, JEP’s founders. features “the 20 most important articles from Acting on Autor’s recommendation, it was the AER’s first 100 years of publishing.” It will VOTED to appoint Katherine Baicker, Ray be posted on the Association website, along with Fisman, Chang-Tai Hsieh, and V. Kerry Smith direct electronic access to each of the 20 articles. to three-year terms as Associate Editors ending In the second paper, Robert Margo presents a in December 2013. history of the AER. The third paper reprints the There followed a discussion of the pol- inaugural issue’s lead article on the common icy of the Advisory Committee on Editorial property resource problem as applied( to water in Appointments that limits the number of mem- the western United States by Katharine Coman, bers of a journal’s Board of Editors normally to followed by papers by ) Elinor Ostrom, Gary three, and under special circumstances four, per Libecap, and Robert Stavins, current scholars institution. Inquiries were made as to whether working on similar problems. The 2011 issues the limit was three or four, whether coeditors of the AER will also contain a gold leaf border were considered in counting representatives of to commemorate the anniversary. a specific institution, and whether editors were Finally, the Executive Committee clarified expected to clear names with the Advisory an ambiguity in the term limits of editors of Committee prior to inviting a candidate to joint the Association’s five refereed journals. It was the Board. The Advisory Committee was asked VOTED that the term limit for editors and coed- to review and clarify these issues and report to itors is nine years, whether served consecutively the Executive Committee at the April meeting. or not. The Advisory Committee on Editorial Report of the Editor of the American Appointments was asked to recommend whether Economic Journal: Applied Economics Duflo . someone promoted from coeditor to editor is eli- Duflo referred to her written report, which( is pub)- gible for a new nine year term limit, or whether, lished in the 2011 Supplemental Proceedings. instead, the nine year limit applies to combined She noted that the submission rate to AEJ: service as coeditor and editor. Applied continues to rise, the acceptance rate is Report of the Editor of the Journal of about nine percent, and the Journal’s short turn- Economic Literature Currie . Currie reviewed around time on submitted manuscripts is being her written report, which( is published) in the 2011 maintained. Supplemental Proceedings. She thanked her pre- Acting on Duflo’s recommendation, it was decessor, Roger Gordon, the Board of Editors, VOTED to appoint Seema Jayachandran and and Managing Editor Mary Kay Akerman for Jesse Shapiro to three-year terms on the Board easing her transition into the editorship. She of Editors ending in December 2013. noted that the Journal receives many unsolicited Report of the Editor of the American manuscripts and proposals for reviews, and that Economic Journal: Economic Policy she planned to clarify in the Journal’s submis- Auerbach . Auerbach referred to his writ- sion policy statement that unsolicited submis- ten( report,) which is published in the 2011 sions are considered for publication. Supplemental Proceedings. He reported that the Acting on Currie’s recommendation, it was acceptance rate for manuscripts submitted to VOTED to appoint James Andreoni, Nicholas AEJ: Policy is about 13 percent. After explain- Bloom, Michael Devereux, Matthew Gentzkow, ing that coeditor Hilary Hoynes had accepted an Bryan Graham, Navin Kartik, Ricardo Reis, appointment as coeditor of the AER, Auerbach Martin Schneider, Daniel Trefler, and Leeat recommended, and it was VOTED, to appoint Yariv to three-year terms on the Board of John Karl Scholz to a three-year term as coedi- Editors ending in December 2013. tor ending in December of 2013.

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Report of the Editor of the American Report of the Director of Job Openings for Economic Journal: Macroeconomics Davis . Economists Siegfried . Siegfried reviewed Davis referred to his written report, published( ) his written ( report, published) in the 2011 in the 2011 Supplemental Proceedings. He Supplemental Proceedings. He reported that reported that AEJ: Macro received 222 sub- new jobs listed returned to 2008 levels, recover- missions during 2010, and that 90 percent of ing from a 21 percent annual decline in 2009. submissions receive a first decision within four New academic job listings in 2010 exceeded the months. In June 2010 Maurice Obstfeld was re- 2008 level, while new nonacademic job listings appointed by an e-mail vote to a three-year term remained about six percent below 2008 lev- ending June 2013 on the Board of Editors of the els. The largest increase in jobs listed in 2010 AEJ: Macro. was in the business/industry sector. Academic After it was discovered that the tables in the jobs increased 17 percent in 2010. Listings in reports of the editors do not all contain the same banking and finance declined from 2009 to information, it was decided to ask the editors 2010. Siegfried also reported for the Ad Hoc of the five refereed journals to try to develop a Committee on the Job Market for Economists template that would coordinate the reporting of Al Roth, Chair . He referred to the Committee’s information about the journals. written( report ) that accompanied the report of Report of the Editor of the American Economic the Director of JOE. In 2006–2008 new PhD Journal: Microeconomics Postlewaite . economists applied to an average 80 employers Postlewaite referred to his written( report, pub)- annually. The Committee recently conducted a lished in the 2011 Supplemental Proceedings. review of the Association’s signaling mechanism He reported that submissions to AEJ: Micro and late-market scramble. Signaling appears to, increased by about twenty percent during 2010. on average, raise the prospect of securing an Following Postlewaite’s recommendation, it interview with an employer by 25 to 32 percent. was VOTED to appoint Michael Ostrovski to a For the 2009–2010 job market, it appears that three-year term on the Board of Editors of AEJ: there were at least 15 job placements facilitated Micro ending in December 2013. by the scramble. No Poaching Rule Moffitt and Goldberg . Siegfried also reported that the Committee Since January 2009 ( the editors of the) is concerned that the proliferation of required Association’s five refereed journals had been communications methods by which various operating under an agreement not to make employers accept letters of recommendation offers to each other’s Board of Editor members for job candidates is greatly increasing costs to switch journals. The agreement was initially to those who serve as references for job candi- implemented in order to assist in the develop- dates. Some institutions still require paper let- ment of the new American Economic Journals. ters of recommendation, some require the use The AER editor proposed to relax or eliminate of Econjobmarket.org, some require personal the rule because the AEJs had successfully e-mail transmission, and some require the use of established themselves and no longer needed electronic employer-specific letter deposit sites. protection from competition for editorial board The last, in particular, undermine economies members. After an extensive discussion of the of scale in letter distribution. There followed a advantages and disadvantages of protecting the brief discussion of alternatives to reduce costs journals from efforts to “poach” editorial board of recommending graduate students for jobs, members, it was VOTED that “If a member of including the possibility of using the privi- the Board of Editors of the AER or an AEJ is lege of advertising in JOE, coordination with approached to change boards, the requesting edi- Econjobmarket.org to lower these costs, and an tor will first consult with the editor of the current appeal to the Council of Graduate Schools to journal of the member to learn possible reasons work on the problem, with no resolution to the for hardship to that journal.” This procedure problem. eliminates the constraint on “poaching,” while Report on Association’s Relationship with providing additional information to the Advisory the Council of Professional Associations on Committee on Editorial Appointments to con- Federal Statistics COPAFS Deaton and sider when it is asked to clear the editorial board Fraumeni . The Association( has) been( a member candidate for appointment to the new board. of COPAFS) for decades. COPAFS organizes

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workshops and conferences at which users of completed its contract to host the Summer statistics interact with employees of govern- Program in 2010. The Committee did not, at this ment statistical agencies. After an extensive time, have an acceptable proposal to host the discussion of the benefits derived by economists Program after 2010, and, accordingly, the pro- from COPAFS, it was VOTED to continue the gram will be suspended for 2011. She expressed Association’s membership in COPAFS, but to optimism that the Committee would have a pro- reduce the amount the Association contributes posal to present to the Executive Committee at to COPAFS from $15,000 to $350 per year. its April 2011 meeting to resume the Summer Report of the Committee on the Status of Program in 2012. Doug Steigerwald, who Women in the Economics Profession CSWEP directed the Summer Program in 2008–2010, Fraumeni . Fraumeni highlighted several( items) urged the Executive Committee to give care- from( her written) report, published in the 2011 ful consideration to what it hoped to achieve Supplemental Proceedings. A regional CeMent with the Summer Program. He emphasized that mentoring conference will be held in conjunction the foundations-level program helps to encour- with the November 2011 Southern Economic age an interest in graduate economics study Association meetings in Washington, DC; a among some students who, in spite of their national CeMent conference will be held after the ambition and effort, would not otherwise have January 2012 American Economic Association pursued such study. The advanced level of the meeting in Chicago. The Summer Fellows pro- Program is directed at improving the prepara- gram continued in 2010 with the placement of tion of already committed students sufficiently eight fellows at cooperating organizations. The for them to succeed in the most demanding fraction of new PhDs who are women peaked in economics PhD programs. Chiteji also reported 2008, declining slightly to 33.4 percent in 2010. that the Mentoring Program, which works with Thirty percent of senior economics majors at students who currently are enrolled in econom- PhD producing departments are female; at lib- ics PhD programs, had received a new grant eral arts colleges the percentage of graduates in from the National Science Foundation. economics who are female is 37. The fraction of Report of the Committee on Government untenured assistant professors who are female is Relations Moffitt for Abraham . Moffitt 27.8 percent at PhD granting departments. The referred to ( Abraham’s written report,) pub- comparable figures for tenured female associate lished in the 2011 Supplemental Proceedings. and full professors are 21.8 percent and 10.7 per- He reported that the Committee represents the cent, respectively. The proportions of untenured interests of economists in Washington, DC, and assistant professors, tenured associate profes- other locations around the country. As is true of sors, and tenured full professors at liberal arts the Association more generally, the Committee colleges that are female in 2010 were 39.3, 32.7, does not take positions on questions of economic and 25.0 percent, respectively. policy or on partisan matters. It is charged with There followed a brief discussion of the possi- informing the Association’s leadership and bility of the Association fully funding CSWEP, economists about legislation, regulations, and which in 2010 was supported by a combination agency decisions relevant to their scientific of $35,000 from the Association and approxi- interests, coordinating with other organizations mately $15,000 raised from contributions of that share an interest in social science research, CSWEP associates. CSWEP requested an addi- and promoting the value of economic analysis tional $5,000 from the Association for 2011. The within the policy community and encouraging it funding of CSWEP was referred to the Budget to draw on the intellectual resources of the eco- and Finance Committee to consider in April nomics profession. 2011; in the meantime, CSWEP was authorized The Committee meets regularly by telecon- to continue operating as usual. ference with Dan Newlon, the Association’s Report of the Committee on the Status of Washington representative. It has created a Minority Groups in the Economics Profession website, encourages economists to apply for CSMGEP Ngina Chiteji . Chiteji referred vacancies in government research and statisti- to( CSMGEP’s) ( written report,) published in the cal agencies, and has encouraged economists 2011 Supplementary Proceedings. She reported to respond to a call from the National Science that the University of California, Santa Barbara Foundation NSF for white papers advising ( )

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on “grand challenges on future research in the from the Data Preservation Alliance for Social social, behavioral, and economic sciences” Sciences, asking the AEA to participate in an to be used by the NSF to plan future research effort to create a consistent citation format for support. In response to a request for advice on datasets. In the ensuing discussion, it was sug- what actions to take if the 2011 Congress should gested that the Committee periodically survey attempt to target economic research with dispro- editors and authors for ideas to improve the portionate budget cuts, it was decided that the Association’s publication process. Committee should provide information about The 2011 Program Ashenfelter . Ashenfelter the benefits of specific economic research rather thanked his Program( Committee) for its help than take a general position on budgetary cuts. organizing the 2011 program. He noted that 39 Committee on Economic Education Watts . percent of 287 submitted complete sessions and Watts reported that the Committee has organized( ) 17 percent of 897 submitted individual papers what is anticipated to be an annual conference made the program. To further open the program on teaching economics at the undergraduate and to a wide range of participants, Ashenfelter graduate levels, and research on economic edu- organized 30 five-paper sessions with no discus- cation at all levels. The first conference is sched- sants for 2011. This permitted him to include 150 uled for June 1–3, 2011, at the Stanford Institute individually submitted papers on the program. for Economic Policy Research. Fifty concurrent The 2012 Program Sims . Sims announced sessions and three plenary lectures are sched- that he has a Program( Committee) appointed. uled. Following the Committee’s request it was Maurice Obstfeld will deliver the 2012 Ely VOTED to provide a $25,000 annual subvention Lecture, and Nobel Laureates Peter Diamond, to support the convention. Dale Mortensen, and Chris Pissarides will be Ad Hoc Committee on the Annual Meetings honored at a luncheon on the second day of the Abel . Abel reported that his Committee meetings. He indicated that he plans to follow (members) Jonathan Gruber, Lars Peter Hansen, the procedure used for the 2010 and 2011 meet- and( Joseph Quinn met in October and formed ings of creating a number of five-paper sessions preliminary recommendations) about several without discussants in order to increase partici- issues posed to them, including the name of the pation by those who submit individual papers. Annual Meeting and the distribution of its rev- Report from the Representative to the enues. He reported that the Committee would International Economic Association IEA meet with the five “founding members” of Acemoglu . The IEA is a federation of over( 60) ASSA during the Denver meetings. There fol- (national and) regional associations, including the lowed a discussion of the Committee’s prelimi- American Economic Association. Its purpose is nary recommendations that the Committee will to enhance personal contacts and mutual under- take into consideration in preparing its final standing among economists of different nations. report to the Executive Committee at its April Following Acemoglu’s recommendation, it was 2011 meeting. VOTED to continue the Association’s member- Standing Committee for Oversight of ship in the IEA through 2013. Operations and Publications Eberly . Eberly Report of the Treasurer Siegfried . Siegfried reported that the committee herself( ) as chair, reported that the projected( financial) results for Autor, Hall, Lawrence Katz,( and Dennis 2010 show a $465,000 operating surplus. He Epple, members had recommended expand- presented the proposed 2011 budget, which is ing the AER from) four to six issues, chang- in Table 1 accompanying the Treasurer’s report ing the line length, font, and paper color of that will be published in the May 2011 issue the AER to improve readability, and chang- of the AER. It projects an operating deficit of ing the Association’s dues structure to a lower $206,000. Following a recommendation from level for a default ­no-print-journals member- the Budget and Finance Committee, it was ship. Remaining agenda issues include the VOTED to approve the 2011 budget. ­appropriate level of net unrestricted assets Following Siegfried’s recommendation, it for the Association, whether a print copy of was VOTED to authorize Marlene Hight, the the Papers and Proceedings issue of the AER Association’s Convention Manager, as a sec- should continue to be sent to all members of the ond signatory on Association checks exceeding Association after January 2012, and an appeal $10,000.

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The Association’s net unrestricted assets economists, it was VOTED to create an ad hoc on September 30, 2010, were $17.9 million, committee to consider the Association’s exist- 2.0 times budgeted expenditures including ing disclosure and other ethical standards and ASSA for 2010. The Association’s target( ratio potential extensions to those standards. of unrestricted) assets to gross expenditures There being no further business to conduct, it established by the Executive Committee is in was VOTED to adjourn at 5:20 pm. the range 1.5 to 2.5. Ethical Standards. After an extensive dis cussion of the appropriate role of the Association Respectfully submitted, in matters concerning the ethical behavior of JOHN J. SIEGFRIED, Secretary

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