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The Economic History of the American Economic Review: A Century’s Explosion of Economics Research

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  • Robert A. Margo

    (Department of Economics, Boston University.)

Abstract

Written in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the American Economic Review, this paper recounts the history of the journal. The recounting has an analytic core that sees the American Economic Association as an organization supplying goods and services to its members, one of which is the Review. Early in its history the Review was a multipurpose publication with highly disparate content. Over time the economics profession expanded and more economics research was produced, primarily in the form of journal articles. Editors accommodated this shift by allocating more resources to the refereeing and editing process and more space to research papers.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert A. Margo, 2010. "The Economic History of the American Economic Review: A Century’s Explosion of Economics Research," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2010-027, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bos:wpaper:wp2010-027
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    Cited by:

    1. Beatrice Cherrier, 2017. "Classifying Economics: A History of the JEL Codes," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(2), pages 545-579, June.
    2. Robert A. Margo, 2018. "The integration of economic history into economics," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 12(3), pages 377-406, September.
    3. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2018. "Citations in Economics: Measurement, Uses, and Impacts," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(1), pages 115-156, March.
    4. Schwabish, Jonathan, 2018. "Categorizing and Ranking Graphs in the American Economic Review Over the Last Century," OSF Preprints rakpy, Center for Open Science.
    5. Nadia Fernández-de-Pinedo & Alvaro La Parra-Perez & Félix-Fernando Muñoz, 2023. "Recent trends in publications of economic historians in Europe and North America (1980–2019): an empirical analysis," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 17(1), pages 1-22, January.
    6. Dorothea HOEHTKER, 2022. "Historical perspectives on the International Labour Review 1921–2021: A century of research on the world of work," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 161(4), pages 12-48, December.
    7. Helen Paul, 2015. "Editorial: Women in economic and social history: twenty-fifth anniversary of the Women's Committee of the Economic History Society," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(2), pages 1-17, May.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics
    • B19 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Other
    • B29 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Other

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