Looking Back: A Bibliographic History of The

Final Pre-Print Draft

Looking Back: A Bibliographic History of The American Economist Paul W. Grimes1

Abstract The American Economist has a distinctive legacy in economics by being the official publication of the organization that honors academic excellence in the field, Omicron Delta Epsilon, The International Honor Society in Economics. This paper examines the history of The American Economist from its beginnings as a student-produced annual publication to a professionallyproduced academic journal with a global reach. During its more than fifty-year run, the journal has published original works by many eminent economists, including 23 Nobel Prize winners. As one of the first journals that academic economists encounter, the journal continues to have a unique influence and impact on the economics profession.

Keywords: economics journals, economists, citations, authors, honor society, Nobel Prize

JEL Classifications: A14, A11, A19

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Pittsburg State University

Corresponding Author: Paul W. Grimes, 1701 South Broadway, Kelce College of Business, Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS 66762 Email: [email protected]


Looking Back: A Bibliographic History of The American Economist

Introduction Anniversaries are times to look back and to celebrate achievements and accomplishments. The American Economist and its sponsoring organization, Omicron Delta Epsilon, The International Honor Society in Economics, recently passed major milestones in their histories that are worthy of note and celebration. Omicron Delta Epsilon traces its roots back to 1915 when two local honor fraternities at the University of Wisconsin and at Harvard University, merged to form the National Order of Artus. In 1963, this organization merged with a third scholastic group, Omicron Chi Epsilon, originally founded at the City College of New York, and became Omicron Delta Epsilon. Shortly before this last merger, the Journal of Omicron Chi Epsilon, was renamed The American Economist. Since the completion of the merger, The American Economist has been continuously published twice each year as the official academic journal of Omicron Delta Epsilon. Thus, Omicron Delta Epsilon is now more than 100 years old and The American Economist has passed 50 years of service disseminating research and information to the organization’s members and the economics profession in general. Omicron Delta Epsilon’s former Executive Secretary Treasurer William Gunther recently traced the colorful history of the honor society in these pages (Gunther, 2013). While he recounted various highlights of The American Economist’s relationship with Omicron Delta Epsilon and various aspects of its production over the years, a true bibliographic history of the journal’s content was beyond the scope of Gunther’s primary focus. This paper attempts to fill that gap by providing an examination and analysis of The American Economist’s contribution to the economics profession through its publication history since becoming the official journal of 2


Omicron Delta Epsilon. After a brief review of The American Economist’s production and editorial history, I examine the distribution of the journal’s content over the years, focusing on the various formats of the items published. This is followed by a review of authorships and research topics, including an examination of those works by notable economists, with specific attention to Nobel laureates, which have appeared in the journal over the years. The paper concludes with a look at the impact of the journal’s publications, and editorial thoughts about its future.

Production and Editorial History The publication that would evolve into a widely respected academic journal with an international audience, one in which Nobel laureates would publish their life philosophies, began as a small student-managed annual periodical at the City College of New York in 1956 (Allegretti and D’Amato, 1959). The Journal of Omicron Chi Epsilon, referred to by the organization’s members as simply “The Journal,” proclaimed that its goal was “to create and stimulate interest in the field and study of economics” (Siegman, 1957). Although the first edition of The Journal is apparently lost to history, the earliest issues available suggest that its content was set with a typewriter and produced via a mimeograph or similar process. The first editors were students who were supervised by faculty advisors and various members of Omicron Chi Epsilon’s Board of Directors. The content varied widely from issue to issue, but consisted primarily of studentauthored articles based on classroom research or derived from honor theses, short notes on current economic events, news and updates from the society’s campus chapters, and reviews of both current and classic books on economics. Very importantly for the publication’s future, starting with the third volume, The Journal published academic papers written and reviewed by

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economics professors. The first of these was a piece entitled, “The Theory of Economic Development Reconsidered,” by Friedrich Baerwald, Professor of Economics at Fordham University (Baerwald, 1959). This would set the precedent for the economics student honor society to publish original academic work by professional scholars in journal form. Today, this continues to be a distinctive feature of Omicron Delta Epsilon and The American Economist. In 1960, The Journal moved its production to Harvard and changed its name to The American Economist. The first article published under this new title was, “Economic Reasoning and Military Science,” by a young professor, Thomas C. Schelling (1960). Forty-five years later, Professor Schelling would receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work in applying game theory to problems of cooperation and competition – with specific application to international arms control. This was the not to be the only time a future Nobel laureate would publish original work in the journal. Along with the change in its title, at this time the journal also adopted the distinctive red cover and iconic wordmark that it would carry for the next fiftyplus years. Both the title and choice of color are reminiscent of the preeminent journal in economics, The American Economic Review (AER), published by the American Economic Association (AEA). It cannot be verified if this was intentional, but by this time the honor society was forming what would become a lasting relationship with the association through its official sessions and meetings held at the annual AEA conference. Upon completion of the merger, which resulted in the formation of Omicron Delta Epsilon, the journal’s editorship moved to Princeton University and Geza de Feketekuty became the editor-in-chief. de Feketekuty was a doctoral student at Princeton at the time and is recognized today as the journal’s first permanent editor. Prior volumes were edited by a revolving number of student officers of the honor society. de Feketekuty served in the editor’s

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role for three years before going on to become a well-published and respected economist in government and public service. During his time at the editor’s desk, he solidified the look and feel of the journal by publishing a number of articles written by established economists at major universities. In the first issue under his leadership, de Fetetekuty stated that the journal, “. . . tries to project the image of the younger generation of economists,” and that, although it was a student-oriented journal, he intended to publish, “. . . contributions from established members of the profession. . .” (de Fetetekuty, 1963a). de Fetetekuty also founded the journal’s eclectic approach to economics by stating that the journal would publish articles from competing economic philosophies and claiming, “It is hardly possible or desirable to limit intellectual curiosity by arbitrary classifications of ideas and writers.” (de Fetetekuty, 1963a) As a general interest journal, The American Economist continues to honor his approach today by publishing articles from all schools of economic thought across the entire spectrum of sub-fields and areas of specialization. As the professional reach of the journal grew, de Fetetekuty became the last student to edit The American Economist. He was succeeded by Professor Daniel E. Diamond of New York University (NYU), who held the editor-in-chief’s position from the fall of 1966 through 1967. Diamond was followed by Professor John D. Guilfoil, also from NYU, who served for seven years, 1968 through 1974. During these years, the journal assumed a more professional look and a format that was similar to the other academic journals in economics published at that time. However, the journal remained faithful to its primary audience – graduate students and young economists – by routinely publishing selected reading lists and syllabi solicited from prominent economists at leading graduate programs. The journal also began publishing papers presented by the society’s members at the AEA conference as well as the proceedings of the society’s sessions

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at regional and state association meetings. An important precedent was set when the journal published the first John R. Commons lecture by Evsey Dormar in the spring of 1966. (This landmark paper is reprinted elsewhere in this issue.) The Commons Award was created by Omicron Delta Epsilon to recognize and honor academic achievements and service to the profession and to the honor society. Prior to receiving the award, Professor Dormar served on the Omicron Delta Epsilon Board of Trustees and provided advice and counsel for the journal’s editorial staff for a number of years. The Commons Award, given biannually, and its accompanying lectures presented at the AEA conference, became the avenue by which a significant number of eminent economists would publish their original work in The American Economist. The most important decision in the journal’s history was made in 1974 when the Omicron Delta Epsilon leadership appointed Professor Michael Szenberg of Long Island University to be editor-in-chief. Professor Szenberg, who later moved to Pace University, would hold this position for the next 37 years. 1 Under his guidance, The American Economist grew in stature and recognition throughout the profession. Over the years, Professor Szenberg initiated a number of features, including a series of invited articles from prominent economists which featured their life stories and philosophies told in their own words. This series and others attracted the attention of many in the profession and resulted in the publication of several books of articles collected from the pages of The American Economist. As Omicron Delta Epsilon evolved into an honor society with an international scope, the subscription base to The American Economist grew dramatically during Professor Szenberg’s tenure. By the time he retired from the editorship, more than 6,000 individual readers and libraries received the journal each year. 2 One of the original journals indexed in the AEA’s

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EconLit database, The American Economist was also invited in the early 2000s to become a member of the prestigious JSTOR electronic archive based on the quality of its research published under Professor Szenberg’s leadership. Throughout the Szenberg era, the amount of the journal’s content focused on graduate school issues and job market prospects – topics of special interest to the student members of Omicron Delta Epsilon – diminished in favor of more content focused on new original research that appealed to broad cross-sections of the profession. This new material was often written by freshly minted Ph.Ds and young assistant professors starting their academic careers. Professor Szenberg became known as an editor who was sensitive to the struggles of inexperienced economists developing their research agendas (Grimes, 2011). In choosing his editorial board and selecting manuscript referees, Professor Szenberg favored established researchers who would take the time to work personally with young writers in developing their papers into publishable quality. As a result, numerous economists experienced their first publication success under his editorship. Even for authors of papers whose works were rejected, Professor Szenberg had encouraging words of advice and he counseled them that “rejections energize” those who aspire to improve upon their work (Bosshardt, 2011). In 2011, Professor Szenberg passed the editorship to Professor Paul W. Grimes of Mississippi State University (MSU) who had served with him as an associate editor for a number of years. Shortly after assuming the editor’s role, Professor Grimes retired from MSU to become the dean of the business school at Pittsburg State University in Kansas. The editorial office of The American Economist is housed there today. Since its inception, the journal was physically set and printed by a variety of university presses and contract printers. Even as many traditional academic journals transitioned into

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electronic formats, The American Economist remained a print-only journal until this current volume. Editor Grimes and the Omicron Delta Epsilon Executive Board took steps in 2015 to move the production and publication of the journal to Sage Publications, a major publisher of academic journals with a global distribution network. Under Sage, the journal is now available to all members of Omicron Delta Epsilon in electronic format while traditional print copies are available for libraries and individual subscribers. The new arrangements will significantly enhance the potential readership and impact of The American Economist as Omicron Delta Epsilon members may elect to maintain their complementary electronic subscriptions for life. The contract with Sage ensures that the journal will remain a vital contributor to the ongoing dialog of economic research in the digital age.

Journal Content over Time The content of The American Economist evolved over its history reflecting the transformation from a student-managed and student-produced annual periodical into a professionally produced semiannual academic journal with worldwide distribution. Examination of this transformation also reveals insights into how journals have changed the way economic research and information about the profession is communicated within academia. Each semiannual issue of The American Economist has included approximately 100 to 150 pages of content for the past fifty years. However, the format of this content has not remained consistent. This is clearly seen by comparing Figures 1, 2, and 3.

-------------------------- Insert Figures 1, 2, and 3 about Here --------------------------

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Figure 1 was constructed based on an accounting and classification of each item appearing in the table of contents for the ten annual volumes published during the 1960-69 timespan. 3 As seen in the figure, approximately one half of the journal’s space was devoted to traditional journal articles. Shorter comments and notes collectively accounted for about another twenty percent. While editorial notes took up a small amount of space, the publication of course reading lists, dissertation abstracts and other miscellaneous items consumed nearly thirty percent of the journal’s total pages during the first full decade of publication. As noted earlier, the reading lists (sometimes including course syllabi) were very popular with graduate students who otherwise would not have access to what was being taught at programs other than their own. Furthermore, because these lists were often solicited from prominent economists, academics and professionals also found them beneficial to guide and supplement their own personal reading. In the late 1960s, other than enrolling at the University of Chicago, The American Economist was the only place you could learn what Milton Friedman was assigning in his graduate courses (Friedman, 1969). In 1964, The American Economist began publishing abstracts of doctoral dissertations. Prior to this, there was no widely available source to locate a cross-section of detailed information about recently completed dissertations in economics. 4 The abstracts were presented within broad topical groupings (such as microeconomic theory, growth and development, labor economics, etc. 5) with each issue featuring a different set of topics. The abstracts were curated directly from graduate program directors, and therefore, this service could not be considered a complete accounting of all doctoral degrees conferred. However, a number of economists that would become well known within the profession have the distinction of their dissertation abstracts being published in The American Economist. Among others, this list includes 1993

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Nobel laureate Robert W. Fogel (1966), noted forecaster Ray C. Fair (1969), and future U.S. and Israeli central banker Stanley Fischer (1969). By the early 1970s, the journal ceased publishing dissertation abstracts after the AEA began producing its annual index of dissertations which first appeared in the AER and later moved to the Journal of Economic Literature, and then on to the EconLit database. Figure 2 illustrates the distribution of the journal’s content in the 2000s and Figure 3 shows the cumulative distribution over the fifty years following the merger that created Omicron Delta Epsilon. Figure 2 reveals several important differences in the format of what The American Economist published in the 2000s relative to the 1960s. First, it is obvious that articles are now the clearly predominate format of the journal’s communication with readers. More than seventy percent of the journal’s pages are devoted to scholarly articles. Second, a significant number of pages, about twenty percent of the total, are now devoted to formal book reviews. Third, while the number of pages for editorial notes and miscellaneous content remained about the same as they did in the 1960s, the number of notes and comments dwindled considerably over the intervening years. In fact, only one percent of the total pages in the 2000s were in the form of notes, and comments completely disappeared. This change reflects the revolution in the mode of communication between scholars that we have experienced over the years. In the 1960s, a scholar taking exception to another researcher’s conclusions, or one just wanting to expand or amplify a point suggested in a paper, had to resort to submitting his/her thoughts to a journal editor for review and possible publication at a later date. Today, scholarly papers circulate freely on the internet and authors can be addressed directly either by email or through any number of other electronic means that are publically accessible, such as blogs and social media. The traditional published comment has become an anachronism. The conversations and

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debates between scholars that once took place between the pages of journals have moved to the digital sphere. Interestingly, and foreshadowing today’s blogs and public comment forums, then-editor Szenberg introduced a journal feature entitled, “Position Papers,” in 1978. These short papers were intended to feature economists taking a stand on controversial and contemporary policy issues. Readers were asked to respond with comments that would be considered for future issues. The first of these was on higher education (Berliner, 1978). Apparently few readers took the initiative to respond – not surprising as any published comment would take at least six months or a year to appear – and the idea quickly faded away. In 2007 and 2008, Professor Szenberg took another unusual step for an economics journal editor – he published poems. Four poems, all on economic themes and written by Chennat Gopalakrishnan, appeared in the pages of The American Economist. The opening stanza to one entitled, “Pareto Optimum,” reads as follows: The search for an optimal state, With no room for change or movement Static, with no flow; a stagnant pool. . . . (Gopalakrishnan, 2008) The publication of these poems did not initiate a fad or even motivate the creative literary energies of other economists and such prose never appeared again. As a final comment on the types and format of the items appearing in the journal, it is worth recognizing that commercial advertising played a very small and insignificant role in The American Economist’s history. In the second issue under his editorship, de Feketekuty (1963b) included an editorial note indicating that the cost of producing the journal had risen to almost $1,500 per issue and that the journal would attempt to solicit advertising in hopes that the

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additional revenue would offset expenses. 6 At the bottom of the page, the first advertisement appeared – one for Balfour Jewelers, the producer of Omicron Delta Epsilon membership keys. Over the next few years, advertisements appeared sporadically, most announcing new titles for academic presses and textbook publishers, and then disappeared. The significant growth in Omicron Delta Epsilon’s membership base and expanding number of library and institutional subscriptions apparently solved the early financial difficulties.

Authors and Research Topics Since becoming the official academic journal of Omicron Delta Epsilon, The American Economist has published research articles written by more than twelve hundred individual economists. 7 As seen in Table 1, between 1963 and 2014, the journal published 1,190 separate research articles that were written or co-written by 1,216 unique authors. To account for coauthorships and authors with more than one paper published in the journal, total “authorships” were also calculated. Each name appearing on the title page of an article was counted as one authorship. A grand total of 1,579 authorships were generated over the time span analyzed. The employment profile of the journal’s authors is heavily skewed to academics. Table 1 reveals that more than eighty percent of authors publishing in The American Economist are faculty members employed by institutions of higher learning. Another twelve and a half percent are student authors with graduate students outnumbering undergraduates by about three to one. Clearly, the editorial bar is set very high for undergraduate students as the data indicate that, on average, only about one undergraduate paper is published each year. 8 Interestingly, only about five percent of the journal’s authors are professional economists in government and in the private sector.

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-------------------------- Insert Table 1 about Here --------------------------

Long before Omicron Delta Epsilon embraced its global reach by incorporating “International” in its official title, The American Economist published works by economists living and working in foreign lands. During the journal’s formative years in the 1960s, authors from Canada, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, and Zambia published research articles in The American Economist. Table 2 reports the international distribution of the journal’s authorships between 1963 and 2014. Befitting its title, nearly eighty-nine percent of the journal’s authors are based in the United States. Canadian and Israeli economists are a distant second and third in frequency of authorships. In total, thirty-two separate nations have been represented over the years. Table 2 also reports the year when an article by an author from each country first appeared in The American Economist. The general trend over times follows the spread of the advancement in economic research around the world – Western European nations tended to appear earlier followed by those in Asia, the Mid-East, and the developing world.


Over the years, a number of authors have published multiple articles in The American Economist. Table 3 provides a ranking of these authors based on the number of research article appearances in the journal. 9 The list is topped by long-time editor Michael Szenberg with twenty articles, followed by his frequent writing partner Lall Ramratten in second place with seventeen papers published. Professor Tadiboyina Venkateswarlu of the University of Windsor (Canada) appears in third place as the author of a long-running series of papers analyzing the course

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content of graduate courses in university across the United States and Canada. The most notable name on the list in Table 3 is William Baumol from NYU and Princeton. Over the years, Professor Baumol has been a strong supporter of Omicron Delta Epsilon, and The American Economist has benefited from his noteworthy contributions to its pages. (One of Professor Baumol’s more memorable articles is reprinted elsewhere in this issue.)


Of those authors listed in Table 3, Professor Szenberg also has the distinction of the longest period of time between first appearance and last – thirty-nine years. However, he does not hold the record for all authors. That honor belongs to David B. Humphrey, currently a distinguished professor at Florida State University. His first work was published in Volume 7 when he was a graduate student at what is now San Diego State University (Humphrey, 1963). To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the journal’s association with Omicron Delta Epsilon, Editor Grimes requested that he submit an article (Humphrey, 2014) which was published in Volume 59 – a full fifty-one years later. 10 This record will likely stand for many years to come. Another author with multiple decades between publications in The American Economist is Nobel laureate Thomas Schelling. As noted earlier, he published an article in the journal’s fourth volume in 1960. Thirty-five years later in 1995, he published his second piece – derived from a commencement address to the University of California at Berkeley. (This paper is also reprinted elsewhere in this issue.) All told, 29 articles written by 23 different Nobel Prizewinning economists have been published by The American Economist. A complete listing of these papers and authors is presented in Table 4. A number of these papers were prepared on the

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occasion of the author receiving the Commons Award from Omicron Delta Epsilon, others were prepared as contributions to Editor Szenberg’s series of papers on the lives and philosophies of eminent economists, while still others appeared amongst the journal’s regularly scheduled and published articles. Eight of the papers listed in Table 4 were published in advance of the author receiving the Nobel Prize. Some of these predated the prize by many years, including Schelling’s at 45 years, Paul Krugman’s at 15 years, and Elinor Ostrom’s at 11 years. The most recent Nobel laureate to publish in The American Economist is Peter Diamond, whose Commons Lecture was included in the Fall 2012 issue.


The relative frequency in which papers by Nobel laureates and other eminent economists appear in The American Economist provides it with a distinctive feel and tone that is not shared by most other economics journals. Although it is difficult to ascertain, the number of different Nobel Prize-winning economists published in The American Economist rivals that of the AER and other pre-eminent journals in the field. The breadth of fields represented by the eminent authors who have published in The American Economist – spanning the entire discipline – is impressive. To date, nearly one-third of the 76 economists who have won or shared the Nobel Prize have published in The American Economist. Just as the eminent economists’ contributions to the journal span the entire spectrum of topic and thought, so too do the contributions by the journal’s rank and file authors. Table 5 provides a look at the distribution of articles published between 1963 and 2014 across the discipline’s major subfields. 11 It is clear from Table 5 that The American Economist has

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remained true to its mission of being an eclectic general interest academic economics journal. No one topical area has ever dominated the others. In fact, the general distribution of articles across the various categories mirrors the ebb and flow in popularity and importance of the subfields within the discipline as a whole. This is seen by the surge in the percentage of econometrics papers in the 1970s and the declining incidence of macroeconomic papers published in the 1990s and 2000s. Other areas such as labor appear relatively stable over time. The interests and expertise of the editorial teams in place at different points in time are also reflected in the numbers seen in Table 5. For example, the significant increase found in the percentage of papers published in history and economic thought during the Szenberg era captured the impact of his series of papers on the lives of prominent economists. 12 Likewise, the recent bump in economic education papers likely reflects the research background of the current editor. 13


Influence and Impact It is difficult to accurately gauge the influence and impact of any academic journal on its discipline. However, evidence can be gathered and sometimes quantified to examine the issue. The American Economist has a distinctive legacy in economics by being the official publication of the organization that honors academic excellence in the field. Through its intimate relationship with Omicron Delta Epsilon, the journal has attracted eminent thinkers and award winning economists to its list of published authors. Several volumes of collected articles taken from the pages of the journal have been published by prestigious academic presses (e.g.

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(Szenberg, 1992), (Szenberg and Ramrattan, 2004) and (Szenberg and Ramrattan, 2014)) and its historic backfile is regularly accessed by today’s researchers. Over the years, the journal also had encounters with international political controversy and popular culture. In 1989, a story appeared in the British newspaper Financial Times which included a quote from Sir Alan Walters, the personal economic advisor to then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The quote, concerning Britain’s position on the European Monetary Union, was taken from a forthcoming academic paper scheduled to appear in The American Economist (Walters, 1989). Walters’ statement, taken out of context, was viewed by many as embarrassing the Thatcher administration and as a personal affront to Nigel Lawson, Chancellor of the Exchequer. The affair made headlines in both the U.K. and the U.S and it even resulted in a minor legal dispute between the journal and the British news magazine The Economist. (For details, please see the Szenberg paper recounting these events and reprinted elsewhere in this issue.) In 2011, Hollywood called on The American Economist. The producers of a major motion picture, Cloud Atlas, requested and received a contractual release from the journal to use “various vintage 1973 issues” in the film “as props and/or set dressings.” A-class actors such as Tom Hanks and Halle Berry starred in the big budget science fiction film which included a character who was a journalist in 1970s San Francisco. Several scenes of this character’s apartment and work space show a clutter of books, magazines, and journals. The film’s style and direction make it difficult to determine if issues of The American Economist are present in these scenes or if they were left on the cutting room floor. However, in keeping with the character’s worldview, the Fall 1973 issue included a special section which opened with a paper, “A Skeptical View of Radical Economics,” by Martin Bronfenbrenner (1973).

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Turning to a more traditional view of a journal’s influence, Table 6 provides a listing of the most accessed articles from The American Economist during 2015 according to JSTOR. The table reveals that the journal’s articles have a significantly long shelf life. Most of the articles on the list were published more than a decade before the analysis was conducted. Some are significantly older. The earliest published paper in the top twenty was 30 years old – a theoretical paper on Slutsky compensated demand functions by Charles F. Revier and John R. McKean (1985). Interestingly, of the Nobel laureate papers, only one by Douglass North (1992) appears in Table 6. (This paper is also reprinted elsewhere in this issue.)


Also of note is that five of the top twenty papers are on sports economics. The American Economist was one of the first journals to publish academic papers analyzing sports from an economic perspective. The first paper was, “Collusive Competition in Major League Baseball,” (1969) by David S. Davenport only four years after Walter C. Neale’s seminal article, “The Peculiar Economics of Professional Sports,” (1965) was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. As sports economics gained in popularity over the years, the number of papers on this topic appearing in The American Economist grew accordingly. 14 Just as sports can attract fanatics, so too can papers on sports economics. In the mid-1970s, the journal published, “Racial Discrimination in Professional Basketball,” (1974) by Robert G. Mogull. This resulted in a series of nine additional comments, notes, and replies all directed at the original paper and spanning a full decade. 15 No other paper in the journal’s history spawned as many published

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rejoinders. Given the changes in scholarly communications discussed earlier, it is unlikely that this record of engaging the journal’s readers in a published debate will ever be broken. The current trend in ranking economics journals is based on the growing ability to track citations to published articles across the academic literature. A wide variety of strategies to evaluate a journal’s impact are utilized by researchers, but most rely on some variant of an “impact factor” which captures the frequency by which a journal’s past content is cited by authors at later dates. The most frequently used impact factor is the one produced by Thomson Reuters through its Journal Citation Reports (JCR) service. Although The American Economist was included in the predecessor of this service during the late 1970s and early 1980s, JCR no longer reports an impact factor for the journal. As a journal that publishes only two issues a year, as opposed to the traditional quarterly format of most academic periodicals, The American Economist is at severe disadvantage in its potential to generate citations. 16 Because it publishes a significantly fewer number of papers each year – usually between 20 and 25 articles – relative to other journals, there are fewer opportunities each year for publishing papers that will be wellcited. 17 In recent years, the self-published character of the journal and the lack of an electronic version have also hindered the journal’s exposure to active researchers. However, the journal is cataloged and indexed by all of the leading bibliographic services today, and the move to Sage Publications for production and distribution, including an electronic version, will significantly enhance the journal’s accessibility and utilization going forward.

The Future As portrayed in this history, The American Economist has a long and distinguished record of serving the economics profession by serving as the official academic journal of Omicron Delta

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Epsilon. From its beginnings as a student-produced annual publication to today as a professionally-produced journal with a global reach, the editors have remained true to the mission of celebrating academic excellence in economics. Although this is most clearly evident through the journal’s publication of original works by contemporary eminent economists and its encouragement and mentoring of young economists, the journal also provides an opportunity for publication by those teaching the next generation of economists, regardless of their school of thought or field of specialization. For professional economists, The American Economist is one of the first academic journals they encounter during their scholastic life. A majority of Omicron Delta Epsilon members are initiated during their senior year of college, or during their first year of graduate study. Since its inception, all new members have received a subscription to The American Economist as part of their initiation fees. For many members, the experience of pulling the iconic red cover from their mailbox was the first time they held an academic journal outside of a library. 18 This ritual has now passed into history. The American Economist evolved over time reflecting the changing patterns of academic communication within the economics profession. With this issue, the journal moves into the digital age as this article appears in the first issue subscribers will receive in electronic format. Though he could not predict this event, the first permanent editor, Geza de Feketekuty, would appreciate this step into the future as he wrote in his editor’s introductory remarks back in 1963, “. . . this is a relatively new venture still in its formative stages. By nature this journal will perhaps always be a new venture." (de Feketekuty, 1963a).

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References

Allegretti, E. & D’Amato, J. J. (1959). Introductory notes. The Journal of Omicron Chi Epsilon, 3, 1. Asarta, C. J., Jennings, A. & Grimes, P. W. (2016). Economic education retrospective: 25 years of contributions from The American Economist. The American Economist, 61, Forthcoming. Baerwald, F. (1959). The theory of economic development reconsidered. The Journal of Omicron Chi Epsilon, 3, 2-7. Berliner, H. A. (1978). Position paper: Higher education. The American Economist, 22, 5-6. Bosshardt, W. D. (2011). An interview with Michael Szenberg, an American economist. The American Economist, 56, 2-4. Bronfrenbrenner, M. (1973). A skeptical view of radical economics. The American Economist, 17, 4-8. Bruggink, T. H. & Williams, D. (2009). Discrimination against Europeans in the national hockey league: Are players getting their fair pay? The American Economist, 54, 82-90. Card, D. and DellaVigna, S. (2013). Nine facts about top journals in economics. Journal of Economic Literature, 51, 144-161. Chressanthis, G. A. (1994). The demand for chess in the United States, 1946-1990. The American Economist, 38, 17-26. Cicarelli, J. (1971). Economic education in the high schools. The American Economist, 15, 8993. Davenport, D. S. (1969). Collusive competition in major league baseball. The American Economist, 13, 6-30. DePrano, M. E. (1964). Abstracts of doctoral dissertations. The American Economist, 8, 48. de Fetetekuty, G. (1963a). Editor’s introduction. The American Economist, 7, 3. de Fetetekuty, G. (1963b). Editor’s note. The American Economist, 7, 69. Fair, R. C. (1969). Abstract: The short-run demand for employment. The American Economist, 13, 146.

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Fogel, R. W. (1966). Abstract: Railroads and American economic growth: Essays in econometric history. The American Economist, 10, 63. Fischer, S. (1969). Abstract: Essays on assets and contingent commodities. The American Economist, 13, 118. Friedman, M. (1969). Readings in macroeconomics – Income, employment and the price level. The American Economist, 13, 86-88. Gopalakrishnan, C. (2008). Pareto optimum. The American Economist, 52, 108. Grimes, P. W. (2011). Editorial note: A tribute to Michael Szenberg. The American Economist, 56, 1. Gunther, W. D. (2013). The history of Omicron Delta Epsilon: The International Honor Society in Economics. The American Economist, 58, 84-101. Humphrey, D. B. (1963). A note on Balliet’s “American business and the international economy.” The American Economist, 7, 33. Humphrey, D. B. (2014). Benefits of collecting checks electronically. The American Economist, 59, 128-133. Journal of Economic Literature. (1991). Classification system: Old and new categories. Journal of Economic Literature, 29, xvii-xviii. Lo, M., Wong, M. C. S., Mixon, F. G., & Asarta, C. J. (2014). Ranking economics journals and articles, economics departments, and economists using teaching-focused research productivity: 1991-2012. Newark, DE: University of Delaware, Department of Economics Working Paper. Meyer, B.S. (1982). Racial discrimination in professional basketball: Hopefully a final comment. The American Economist, 26, 67-68. Mogul, R. G. (1974). Racial discrimination in professional basketball. The American Economist, 18, 11-15. Neal W. C. (1965). The peculiar economics of professional sports. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 78, 1-14. North, D. C. (1992). Institutions and economic theory. The American Economist, 36, 3-6. Revier, C. F. & McKean, J. R. (1985). Derivation of Slutsky compensated demand functions. The American Economist, 29, 53-59.

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Schelling, T. C. (1960). Economic reasoning and military science. The American Economist, 4, 3-13. Siegman, C. (1957). What and who. The Journal of Omicron Chi Epsilon, 2, 3. Szenberg, M. (Ed.). (1992). Eminent Economists: Their Life Philosophies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Szenberg, M. & Ramrattan, L. (Eds.). (2004). Reflections of Eminent Economists. Northampton, MS: Edward Elgar Publishing. Szenberg, M. & Ramrattan, L. (Eds.). (2014). Secrets of Economics Editors. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. University of Michigan. (1938). Microfilm abstracts: A collection of abstracts of doctoral dissertations which are available in complete form on microfilm. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Wagner, G. O. (1987). College and professional football scores: A multiple regression analysis. The American Economist, 31, 33-37. Walters, A. (1989). A life philosophy. The American Economist, 33, 18-24.

Author Biography Paul W. Grimes is Professor of Economics and Dean, Kelce College of Business at Pittsburg State University in Kansas, and Emeritus Professor of Economics, College of Business at Mississippi State University. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of The American Economist and sits on the Omicron Delta Epsilon International Executive Board.

23

Final Pre-Print Draft Figure 1:

1960'S CONTENT DISTRIBUTION Editor's Notes Comments

Notes Articles Reading Lists

Miscellaneous

24

Dissertation Abstracts


2000'S CONTENT DISTRIBUTION Notes

Editor's Notes

Book Reviews

Miscellaneous Articles

25


50 YEAR CONTENT DISTRIBUTION Editor's Notes

Comments Notes Book Reviews Reading Lists Dissertation Abstracts

Articles

Miscellaneous

26


Table 1: 50 Years of Omicron Delta Epsilon’s The American Economist* Bibliographic Profile

Count

Articles

1,190

Authors (Unique)

1,216

Authorships Faculty Professionals Graduate Students Undergraduates

1,579 1,299 80 149 51

*

Vol. 7, No. 1, through Vol. 58, No. 1.

27

Final Pre-Print Draft Table 2 : Nationality of Authorships, Frequency Distribution Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9

10

Nation United States of America Canada Israel Great Britain Taiwan France South Africa Germany Singapore South Korea Australia Ethiopia Japan Sweden Austria Netherlands Russia United Arab Emirates Belgium Brazil China Hungary Kuwait Mexico Nigeria Pakistan Philippines Qatar Saudi Arabia Switzerland Turkey Zambia

Number

Percentage

First Appearance

1,399 55 35 16 16 7 5 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

88.60% 3.48% 2.22% 1.01% 1.01% 0.04% 0.03% 0.03% 0.03% 0.03% 0.02% 0.02% 0.02% 0.02% 0.01% 0.01% 0.01% 0.01%