Your in-basket is overflowing, your nightstand is piled high with journals, and some articles on your reading list are celebrating birthdays since their date of publication while you struggle to find time to read them. You are already neck-deep in a paper blizzard. So why is the American Economic Association starting another journal

Stiglitz, Joseph E.

Shapiro, Carl

Taylor, Timothy

English

Columbia University Academic Commons

Economic Perspectives— Volume 1, Number 1—Summer 1987—Pages 3-5ForewordYour in-basket is overflowing, your nightstand is piled high with journals, andsome articles on your reading list are celebrating birthdays since their date ofpublication while you struggle to find time to read them. You are already neck-deepin a paper blizzard. So why is the American Economic Association starting anotherjournal?The Journal of Economic Perspectives will try to fill a gap between the generalinterest press and existing academic economics journals. Like every academic field,economics has become increasingly specialized, and specialists talk most easily to otherspecialists. Generally, the articles in academic economics publications are aimed atthose who share the speciality or subspecialty of the author, and the author presumesthat readers are already acquainted with the most recent jargon and mathe-matical/technical tools of that speciality. On the other hand, when economists writefor the general press, they tend to concentrate on their estimates of consequences andtheir political beliefs, not the issues involved in their recent work as professionaleconomists.The Journal of Economic Perspectives will serve as a scholarly economics journal forthe general audience of economists. The title of the new journal was chosen to reflecttwo central aspects of its mission: to provide a range of perspectives on economics andto show how an economic perspective can help in understanding society and some ofits problems.The pages of the new journal will reflect the wide spectrum of interests,backgrounds, and viewpoints of the members of the American Economic Association.Many of the articles have been edited and rewritten several times in an effort toensure that each is addressed to the broad audience of economists, not just to theauthor's peers in a subspecialty. Instead of focusing on technical issues or particularmodels, the articles in this journal will focus on what general insights are to be gleanedor what general lessons are to be learned from a line of research. Not every article willbe of interest to every member of the profession—that goal asks too much of anypublication—but we hope every economist will find several articles of interest in eachissue.The Journal of Economic Perspectives should help to disseminate developmentswithin economics more quickly and accurately, and a variety of benefits should result.By encouraging cross-fertilization of ideas among subspecialties, the journal shouldbuild a sense of economics as a unified profession and help to breed new insights.Professors should find many of the articles, problems and readings appropriate forclassroom use. By explaining current research ideas and findings from a less special-ized and technical perspective, the new journal should help to keep business, govern-ment, and academic economists aware of state-of-the-art economic thinking. Finally,4 Economic Perspectiveswe hope that the process of explaining and critically examining the often unques-tioned central tenets of various economic specialties will sometimes lead to sharpenedand redirected research efforts.This inaugural issue reflects the diversity of writers and subjects that will becomeeven more evident in future issues. The symposium that occupies much of the issuecritically examines the Tax Reform Act of 1986, one of the most important pieces ofeconomic legislation in recent years. The authors include some of the nation's leadingtax specialists: economists who not only provided the intellectual framework withinwhich the tax reform debate was cast, but who participated in the political process aswell. Their papers demonstrate how both theoretical and empirical economic analysiscan be used to illuminate policy problems. The symposium is largely due to the hardwork of Henry J. Aaron, who also provides a thoughtful introduction.During the past decade, a number of experiments and observations have castdoubt on the general validity of the hypothesis that individuals maximize theirexpected utility, or indeed, that they act in a manner which is consistent with usualhypotheses concerning rationality. Mark J. Machina provides a thought-provokingoverview of how these experiments affect the standard economics view of choice underuncertainty. A full recognition of these developments could have enormous conse-quences in practice as well as in economic theory. Using examples that may beespecially helpful to teachers, Steven C. Salop describes how unclear perceptions ofuncertain situations can bias legal deliberations.Economists have long argued the importance of economic analysis to understand-ing historical developments, but many have paid insufficient attention to how histori-cal analysis may help in assessing economic theories. Gavin Wright addresses thelongstanding puzzle of why the Southern economy diverged from the rest of thenational economy after the Civil War, and why it then grew rapidly and becameabsorbed by the national economy in the middle third of this century. His papershould raise questions in the minds of those who believe that standard economicparadigms can easily explain this important historical episode.Finally, William J. Barber looks back at the founding of the American EconomicAssociation and finds that the current debates between institutional and mathematicaleconomists and today's concerns over the incentive effects of tenure were alreadycontroversial a century ago. In fact, those conflicts and incentives played a vital role inthe founding of the Association.In addition to symposia and articles, a number of regular features will appear ineach issue of the journal. Richard H. Thaler will edit a feature on "Anomalies," factsthat seem difficult or impossible to reconcile with standard economic theory. BarryNalebuff will edit a "Puzzles" feature, which is meant to provide recreationalintellectual exercise and to serve as a source of problems for students. Bernard Saffi-anwill edit a bibliographic column. In this issue, he identifies several articles that may beof interest to readers taken from publications many economists do not usually scan.Future issues may include other features, including "Letters to the Editors." Each ofthese features will depend heavily on the contributions and interest of readers.Eoreword 5All articles published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives are commissioned bythe Associate Editors, who currently are:Henry J. Aaron, Senior Fellow, The Brooking InstitutionStanley Fischer, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPaul R. Krugman, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Instituteof TechnologyEdward P. Lazear, Isadore Brown and Gladys J. Brown, Professor of Urban andLabor Economics, Graduate School of Business, University of ChicagoMark J. Machina, Associate Professor of Economics, University of California atSan DiegoCharles F. Manski, Professor of Economics, University of WisconsinDonald N. McCloskey, Professor of Economics and History, University of IowaBernard Saffran, Professor of Economics, Swarthmore CollegeSteven C. Salop, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law CenterLawrence H. Summers, Professor of Economics, Harvard UniversityHal R. Varian, Reuben Kempf Professor of Economics and Professor ofFinance, University of MichiganJanet L. Yellen, Professor of Business Administration, School of Business,University of California at BerkeleyThe Journal of Economic Perspectives exists to serve the interests of all the membersof the American Economic Association. The editors stand ready to use the pages of thejournal in a variety of innovative ways, constrained only by our mission to provide themost useful information to the members of the Association. We welcome any and allsuggestions as to how the Journal of Economic Perspectives can best serve your needs.Joseph Stiglitz, editorCarl Shapiro, co-editorTimothy Taylor, managing editor

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