Secretary's Report (2000)
Econometrica, Vol. 69, No. 1 (January, 2001)
THE ECONOMETRIC SOCIETY ANNUAL REPORTS, 2000
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
AUGUST 10, 2000
1. Status of Membership and Circulation
THE FIRST SECTION of this report describes the evolution of the Society’s membership and of the number of institutional subscribers. Information is provided on members and subscribers on both a mid-year and end-of-year basis. In each case, circulation is ‘‘real,’’ tied to actual banked receipts of dues and subscription revenue.
The latest information available, as of June 30 of the current year and of previous years, is provided in the top half of Table I. The bottom half of Table I reports the final number of paid-up members and subscribers as of the end of 1999 and previous years. For any given year prior to 2000, the figures in the bottom half of Table I are larger than in the top half, reflecting those memberships and subscriptions for a given year that are initiated between the middle of that calendar year and the middle of the following calendar year.
Averaging out year-to-year fluctuations, the circulation of Econometrica remained quite stable in the 1990s. The full-year figures in the bottom half of Table I show that the average total circulation of Econometrica in 1995-99 was just 1.4 percent lower than the average for 1990-94. There was some change within the different categories of circula- tion. Again comparing 1995-99 with 1990-94, institutional circulation was 2.8 percent lower, regular membershipŽincluding soft currency, free, and life. was 4.8 percent lower, and student membership 26 percent higher.
The figures for June 30, 1999, shown in the last line of the top part of Table I, show a substantial decline from the situation on the same date the previous year. The mid-year 2000 measure of total circulation is down by 3.6 percent compared to the 1999 mid-year number and down by 5.4 percent compared to the average of the 1995-99 mid-year figures. Most of this decline has occurred in the regular membership category.
The comparative full-year 1999 figures for the Econometric Society and the American Economic Association are displayed in Table II. ŽFor the membership category these figures include regular, student, free, and life members for both the ES and AEA.. The ‘‘E/A’’ ratio for members in 1999 of 0.204 tied the previous year for the highest on record since 1974, while the ratio for institutions of 0.514 was the highest on record. Thus the slippage of membership for the ES is no faster than that of the AEA and for institutions the ES decline is slower.
