Society for Economic Measurement

Society for Economic Measurement
Perrygogas · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Name	Society for Economic Measurement
Formation	2013
Type	Learned society
Headquarters	United States
Fields	Economics, Measurement

Society for Economic Measurement

The Society for Economic Measurement is an international learned society dedicated to advancing empirical methods and quantitative techniques in John Maynard Keynes-inspired macroeconomic analysis, Milton Friedman-aligned microeconomic experimentation, and statistical inference. Founded to bridge work across experimental Daniel Kahneman-style decision research, Vladimir Arnold-style dynamical systems, and econometric practice exemplified by Jan Tinbergen and Clive Granger, the society fosters dialogue among scholars associated with institutions such as National Bureau of Economic Research, Institute for Advanced Study, London School of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University.

History

The society was established in the early 2010s by a coalition including researchers influenced by Vernon L. Smith, Elinor Ostrom, and Robert Lucas Jr. and organizers with connections to American Economic Association, European Economic Association, and Royal Economic Society. Early gatherings brought together participants from Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Chicago, Yale University, Columbia University, and University of California, Berkeley, and featured collaborations with centers such as Cowles Foundation and Becker Friedman Institute. Initial priorities were shaped by debates raised in venues like Journal of Political Economy, Econometrica, and American Economic Review, and by methodological critiques appearing in Journal of Econometrics and Experimental Economics.

Mission and Objectives

The society’s mission aligns with aims articulated by pioneers such as Ronald Coase, Kenneth Arrow, and Paul Samuelson to improve measurement precision, reproducibility, and transparency. Objectives include promoting cross-fertilization between traditions found at The Brookings Institution, CEPR, IZA Institute of Labor Economics, and National Bureau of Economic Research; disseminating best practices used at Federal Reserve Bank of New York, European Central Bank, and Bank of England; and supporting methodological innovation in the spirit of Friedrich Hayek-inspired information-theoretic approaches and John von Neumann-style formal modeling.

Activities and Programs

The society runs seminars, workshops, and collaborative projects that resemble initiatives by Simons Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Programs include summer schools modeled after Santa Fe Institute workshops, replication projects akin to efforts at Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford, and data-curation partnerships with archival projects like Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research and RePEc. The society also sponsors methodological panels featuring speakers affiliated with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory-adjacent modelers, experimentalists influenced by Herbert A. Simon, and econometricians in the tradition of Duncan Luce and Trygve Haavelmo.

Governance and Membership

Governance follows a structure comparable to Royal Society-style councils and National Academy of Sciences committees, with an elected board drawing from faculty at University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, University of Toronto, University of Michigan, and University of California, Los Angeles. Membership categories mirror those of American Statistical Association and Association for Computing Machinery, including student affiliates and emeritus fellows linked to institutions like Johns Hopkins University, Brown University, and Duke University. The society collaborates with professional networks such as Society for Judgment and Decision Making and Behavioral Science & Policy Association.

Conferences and Publications

Annual conferences are held in rotation at venues previously used by European Central Bank symposia, International Monetary Fund workshops, and university hosts like University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Wharton School. Proceedings and special issues appear in journals with editorial practices akin to Econometrica, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Finance, Management Science, and Nature Human Behaviour. The society issues working papers and technical reports paralleling series from CEPR Discussion Papers, NBER Working Papers, and arXiv-style preprints, and curates replication packages inspired by repositories such as Open Science Framework.

Awards and Recognition

Prizes recognize contributions similar in stature to awards named for John Bates Clark, Frisch Medal, and Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences laureates, with categories honoring methodological innovation, empirical replication, and early-career achievement. Award committees include past recipients from lists similar to John von Neumann Theory Prize winners, Turing Award-level computational economists, and laureates of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award. Recipients typically hold affiliations with organizations like World Bank, OECD, UNCTAD, and leading research universities.

Category:Learned societies Category:Economics organizations