Letter from AEA President Robert Hall
September 29, 2009
Dear AEA member,
The 2010 AEA meetings program is now available at http://www.aeaweb.org/aea/conference/program/. We meet, along with about 50 sister economics associations, in Atlanta, January 3-5, 2010.
I write as chair of the program committee for the AEA's part of the meetings to let you know about some of the innovations this year and about the highlights of the program.
To further open the program to a wide range of presenters, we created a new type of session this year, containing papers from the many hundreds submitted individually. Historically, only about 100 individual submissions made the program. This year we added 29 sessions containing 6 papers each from those submitted individually. These sessions cover broader topics than those submitted as complete sessions.
We have also revived a tradition from the 1990s, the lecture session. The 2010 program includes three of these. One recognizes the most recent recipients of the Nobel Prize and the Clark Medal. Paul Krugman will speak on "Globalization and the Crisis" and Emmanuel Saez on "From Optimal Tax Theory to Practice: Comprehensive US Income Tax Reform." The others, in macro and public finance, feature the Program Committees highest-rated individual submissions.
The traditional main events of the Program are the Presidential Address and the Ely Lecture. This year, Angus Deaton, AEA's president, will speak on "Quality, Inequality, and the Measurement of World Poverty." Hal Varian's Ely Lecture is on "Computer Mediated Transactions."
The joint AEA/AFA luncheon features an address by Robert Shiller. Avinash Dixit will describe the contributions of Paul Krugman at the Nobel Laureate Luncheon.
There is a full lineup of talks and panels on current economic events. Ben Bernanke speaks on January 3 at 10:30 am. Panels include: Alan Auerbach, Thomas Sargent, Martin Feldstein and Robert Barro on the deficit; Ben Friedman, Raghuram Rajan, Robert Shiller and Alan Blinder on how the crisis should change how we teach economics; Olivier Blanchard, Martin Feldstein, Ken Rogoff, and Joe Stiglitz on growth or stagnation after the recession; John Quigley, Paul Willen, Robert Shiller, Chris Mayer and Karen Pence on housing; Paul Krugman, Robert Shiller, Thomas Sargent, and Raghuram Rajan on why economists did not predict the crisis; Len Nichols, Gail Wilensky and Uwe Reinhart on health care reform; and David Blanchflower, Pierre Cahuc, Richard Freeman, and Daniel Gros on Europe's role in the economic crisis.
As usual, the heart of the Program is 158 sessions with 657 papers featuring the latest research by an incredible variety of economists. Don't miss this key professional event. Register now at http://www.aeaweb.org/aea/conference/register/.
Sincerely,
Bob Hall, Program Committee Chair
Publications Web Site