2012 Editor's Report

Abstract

On July 1st of 2012, I became editor of Economic Inquiry. I inherited a very strong program from my predecessor, Preston McAfee who introduced a number of innovations, which I largely have kept intact. Preston has worked closely with me to ensure a smooth transition, and that transition is now largely complete. I am extremely grateful for his encouragement, support and guidance, and that he remains involved in the journal as a co-editor. In the 2012 volume of Economic Inquiry, there are 71 papers that cover the breadth of economics. These papers include articles in both micro- and macro-economic topics as well as a balance of theory and empirically oriented papers. As Economic Inquiry is a general journal, I plan to continue to solicit papers in all fields, and to continue the long tradition of soliciting papers that have a strong sense of purpose, make substantial contributions, and are of interest to specialists and non-specialists. Over the years, Economic Inquiry has become an outlet for sports, health, and experimental economics. And, by casual empiricism, there has been growth in both sports and experimental and a modest decline in health. As is often the case, there have been some changes in the editorial board since the last Editor's Report. Peter Arcidiacono, Nezih Guner, and Cedric Tille have resigned as co-editors, and Bruce McGough (University of Oregon), Salvador Navarro (Western University), and Robert E. Rosenman (Washington State University) are new co-editors. Specialized editor William Rogerson (Northwestern University, for Defense Economics) has stepped down, and former co-editor Randall Walsh now is a specialized editor. Newly appointed specialized editors include Bruce Blonigen (University of Oregon, for Multinationals and Trade Policy), Luke Froeb (Vanderbilt University, for Competition Policy), Bruce McGough (University of Oregon, for DSGE Models and Bounded Rationality), Robin McKnight (Wellesley College, for Health Economics), and Jame P. Ziliak (University of Kentucky, for Poverty and Inequality). I am extremely grateful to the co-editors (general and specialized) for their commitment to making good and timely decisions that are consistent with the aims of the journal. I am also grateful for their expertise and their flexibility in developing policy and solutions to the myriad of issues that arise in editing a journal. I have retained the policy of having a set of specialized co-editors. I have, however, asked the specialized co-editors, who handle up to 20 papers per year, to help support the journal by handling papers that are in their more general areas. The specialized areas that I added are grounded in somewhat more traditional fields, but represent specific growth areas within the field. These include: international trade (multinationals and trade policy), industrial organization (competition economics), macroeconomics (DSGE models and bounded rationality), public economics (health economics), labor and public economics (poverty and inequality). In each case, these were established in conjunction with the specialized co-editors. I very much like the concept of specialized areas, and plan to support the concept by publishing groups of papers in each area in addition to creating a web page that documents each area. Currently, I am planning to publish a group of papers, currently edited by Ted Bergstrom, in the specialized area of the economics of publishing. This group will likely appear in the January or April issue of 2014. Table 1 summarizes 2012 vis-a-vis previous years. In 2012, there were 468 new submissions, which is down 32 from the previous year. Most of the decline was from the first six months, and from discussions of editors at the ASSA meetings, there were similar declines in other general interest journals as well. I note that as of June 1, 2013, submissions stand at 480, and, if June is similar to that of prior years, the 12 months since July 1 should exceed that of 2011. …