Should we all Join the American Economic Association

[AlexMerced]

THe AEA is probably one of the more powerful associations for Professional Economists and is big in determining what's mainstream in economics. If we all became members we'd be able to vote members to the board that may be more sympathetic to getting quality Austrian Economics papers in the Journals they publish which are the standard bearer for mainstream economics.

Just a thought.

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AEA/

 

[helmuth_hubener]

I question how many members do they have (how many of us must join to outvote them), and would something like this be permitted to happen?

 

[low preference guy]

let the dinosaurs die

 

[hazek]

let the dinosaurs die

Couldn't agree more. Let them join mises.org.

 

[AlexMerced]

oh well, I joined, I'm joining anything I feel I can help add to the debate, $20 for access to all these journals online so far has been worth, some interesting papers.

As expected it's all very empirical, but if you have strong theoretical foundation like many of us do, this empirical work can be quite useful for refining our arguments.

 

[helmuth_hubener]

oif you have strong theoretical foundation like many of us do, this empirical work can be quite useful for refining our arguments.

I very much like Robert Higgs' books for this reason.

Do you have any idea how many members they have?

 

[mainstream economist]

THe AEA is probably one of the more powerful associations for Professional Economists and is big in determining what's mainstream in economics. If we all became members we'd be able to vote members to the board that may be more sympathetic to getting quality Austrian Economics papers in the Journals they publish which are the standard bearer for mainstream economics.

Just a thought.

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AEA/

I am a mainstream economist and I am not a member of the AEA. Even those who are members do not list this in their CVs. In reality, an economist suffers no disadvantages professionally by not joining the AEA. In fact, the AEA itself has little to no power over economics. Certain members of the AEA do have power to affect what is mainstream in economics, but that power is by virtue of their publication record and other professional accolades and not due to their position in the AEA. Even editorial boards of journals are not elected by the general membership, so we cannot affect what is published in this way.

Paying membership dues to the AEA is the same as giving free money to those who might use those funds to spread an anti-Austrian message. I would prefer it if you would donate that money to the campaign instead.

Just my two cents.

 

[mainstream economist]

$20 for access to all these journals online so far has been worth, some interesting papers.

If you are going to read the papers, then it might be worth it.

However, there are a great number of journals that are not published by the AEA. Among the AEA journals, the American Economic Review is a top journal, but the rest are so-so, so you might be missing a lot.

However, you should be able access and print all economics journal articles for free from the library of any major American university because they purchase access rights. So if you live near one, then that might also be a decent alternative.

Cheers.