The Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) is an international organization of economists and other social scientists devoted to analysis of economics as evolving, socially constructed and politically governed systems.  AFEE publishes the Journal of Economic Issues (JEI). AFEE also has a discussion list that is usually very active that you can sign up for here AFEEmail.

The intellectual heritage of AFEE is that of the Original Institutional Economics (OIE) created and developed by early twentieth-century economists such as Thorstein Veblen, John R. Commons, and Wesley Mitchell. Over recent decades, this legacy has evolved to address such contemporary issues as:

• The role of diverse cultures in economic performance.
• Domestic and international inequalities of income.
• The roles of social, economic and political power in shaping economic outcomes.
• Globalization and the increasing weight of multinational corporations in the international economy.
• The need for expanding use of modern technologies to relieve want.
• The urgent need for awareness of the impact of new technology on the biosphere.
• The ways in which economic thought is affected by and affects always changing economics.

March 27, 2013

Dear AFEE Colleague:

I wish to thank everyone who contributed to the successful meetings in San Diego during early January 2013, including the session organizers, chairs, presenters, discussants and AFEE Officers. A special note of thanks goes to Bill Dugger who worked enthusiastically on numerous aspects of the conference. Thanks go also to Malcolm Rutherford for the Veblen-Commons address and Jamie Galbraith for his ongoing Presidential role and lecture; as well as the Ayres Scholar, Yanis Varoufakis, for his presentation. Eric Hake (AFEE Secretary) and Teresa Rowell (AFEE Coordinator) did excellent work on the ‘special events’ and other sessions. Four innovations were introduced into the San Diego conference for increasing membership which could be ongoing into the future (see Appendix 1).

The President-Elect, Janet Knoedler, has sent through the Call for Papers for the 2014 AFEE at ASSA meetings in Philadelphia, 3-5 January, under the theme of “Reimagining Social Control for the 21st Century”. Please do answer her call for papers and sessions by the 12 April 2013: http://www.afee.net/division.php?page=call_for_papers_2014 Other developments concerning the Phily meetings are that Svetlana Kirdina (Russian Academy of Sciences), an expert on “institutional matrices” etc, has accepted the Clarence Ayres Scholar Award (to present a paper at the January meetings); and the preliminary title of my Presidential Address is “The Political Economy of Corruption Throughout the World”.
Appendix 3 outlines the details of the AFEE Committees. I call your attention to the committees with important deadlines:

• Nominations for the Veblen-Commons Award should be submitted to Jim Peach (jpeach@nmsu.edu), Chair of the VCA Committee, by 15 May 2013.          
• Nominations for the Street Scholar Award should be directed to Wesley Marshall (wesleycmarshall@gmail.com), Chair of the Street Committee, by 30 April 2013.
• Nominations for President-Elect and members of the Board of Directors should be submitted to Anna Klimina (aklimina@stmcollege.ca; cc anna.klimina@usask.ca), Chair of the Nominating Committee, by 15 May 2013.

This year, special attention in committees will be given to measures to increase AFEE membership, activities and prominence. AFEE will also be likely (a) reviewing the performance of the publishers of the JEI, (b) scrutinizing changes to the ByLaws (see Appendix 2, Committee 10), and (c) reinvigorating the Membership/Business Meeting in Philadelphia.

Congratulations to Journal of Economic Issues Editor Chris Brown, along with the JEI Editorial Board, and Dave Zalewski (Treasurer), for their work all year. Thanks go to the (other) members of the Board of Directors and their efforts, including at the San Diego board meeting; along with the efforts of the Trustees (past-Presidents). Mention should go also to Tim Wunder for his work on AFEE electronic communications.

I wish you all success in researching, teaching and promoting institutional and evolutionary economics over the coming year, and look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia in early 2014!

Fraternally,

Phil O’Hara, AFEE President
Global Political Economy Research Unit, gperu.ohara@gmail.com

APPENDIX 1.
Innovations at 2013 San Diego AFEE at ASSA Conference

We introduced four innovations to the January 2013 AFEE at ASSA sessions. The first was a joint AFEE-ASE-AEA session, which had about 100 attendees (organized by Steve Pressman; AFEE-ASE-AEA links by Phil O’Hara). The second was two sessions involving past-presidents and/or past-VC Award recipients, which were highly interesting and had good attendances. The third was to specifically construct outstanding sessions for the Sunday itinerary; which paid off as numbers were high on the last day. And the fourth was the two Senior Scholars Interactive Sessions (SSIS), which resulted in around 22 extra AFEE presenters than normal, and were held in the beautiful Bayside Room with food and drink provided. I will likely be presenting ad hoc, “Beyond the Call of Duty” Awards for “Research and Conference Performance”, to Bill Dugger, Melanie and John Harvey, as well as Tania Warnecke, who made major contributions to these innovations.Table 1, below summarizes salient aspects of these four innovations for future AFEE reference.

We could thus have more AFEE-AEA joint sessions in future, leading to greater attendances and membership. If they were the first AFEE at ASSA session (Friday 8am) we could distribute our AFEE Conference Program to those attending (innovation 1). These past- President and VCA scholar sessions could be continued in the future, with perhaps one at each conference (innovation 2). With outstanding sessions we should feel confident about numbers on the final day (innovation 3).  If the SSISs are activated in future, we should ensure that the “Free Food & Drink” note is kept on the ASSA Program Book (rather than deleted as in 2012/13) and they should be advertised (including by the President-Elect) wider than AFEE/heterodox economists (which was not done in 2012/13) (innovation 4).

Table 1. Innovations at 2013 AFEE at ASSA Conference in San Diego

* Download WDSSIS (SSIS1) the session flyer    Download DSSIS (SSIS2) the session flyer.

APPENDIX 2.
Suggested Likely Uncontroversial Changes to AFEE ByLaws
(See Article XIV of ByLaws for ‘Amendments’)
http://www.afee.net/downloads/AFEE_Bylaws.pdf

Over the past fifteen months I have read the entire AFEE ByLaws four times in order to gain a good grasp of their nature and meaning; since they are supposed to guide our organization. In the course of doing this, I realized that AFEE has not been doing certain things according to the ByLaws and some ByLaws likely need modifying slightly as they have become outdated by AFEE practices or inflation. Since becoming President I have tried to emphasize putting the ByLaws into practice fully (eg, see top notes on Committees in Appendix 3; below second note “2”), or otherwise changing them.

The following parts of the ByLaws are obvious ones that either need to be activated or modified slightly. They are likely not controversial, and should be fairly straightforward. I mention them below. I shall await comments, before discussing it with Committee 10, and then likely having it put it to the BOD in more formal terms. (Suggested Δ in Red)

1. Article V, Section 1. (Re Secretary-Treasurer)
At present, the ByLaws recognize the existence of a “Secretary-Treasurer”, whereas currently we have both a Secretary and a Treasurer. This implies that any vote would give one full voting power to “Secretary-Treasurer”, or possibly if separated into two roles one half a vote each. There is also no recognition of them as possibly being separate people. Hence I recommend an asterisk [footnote] at the bottom of the first main place in the ByLaws where “Secretary-Treasurer” is meaningfully mentioned, stating as follows:

• “Secretary-Treasurer*”: “*Where AFEE have both a Secretary and a Treasurer, each will have a single voting (and existential) right in the Association (and the remaining ByLaws should be interpreted as such); and often “Secretary-Treasurer” means one or the other when they exist as separate people (eg, for “Financial Advisory Committee” it means ‘Treasurer’; for “Electronic Possibilities Committee” it means ‘Secretary’” [see below].

2. Article 10, Section 2. (Re President-Elect Organizing Committee for Sessions at Conferences)
Currently the President-Elect is given the task of organizing a committee to set up sessions at meetings and conferences, but in the past several years this has been ignored, and instead the President has developed an hoc committee to do a similar job. I recommend that the President-Elect undertake this task in future (from 2014), and that likely the ad hoc committee will therefore not be necessary (The P-E’s Committee possibly could be added to the President’s list of committees, but be noted as the President-Elect’s committee). Hence (No vote needed):

• No change; should be reactivated from 2014. The President-Elect should appoint persons to organize sessions at various meetings. (Extract; See Appendix 3, Committee 9.)

3. Article 11, Section 1. (Re Board of Directors [BOD] Committees)
Currently the Board of Directors can delegate responsibilities to committees, but they can only include members of the BOD. I recommend a change so that they can be either BOD or Trustee members. Hence the suggested change (also there is a dash [-] missing):

• “The Board of Directors shall not delegate any of its responsibilities to any committee containing any non-Director or non-Trustee members.”

4. Article 10, Section 9. (Re Essay Prize Competition)
Currently an essay prize competition is mentioned in the ByLaws but has not been activated recently (despite the ByLaws) and still mentions old money values that have been eroded by inflation. Hence the suggested addition (see Appendix 3, Committee 5; I have reactivated this committee this year):

• Essay Prize Competition. “$1,000 or other sum approved by the Board”.

5. Article 11, Section 12. (Re: Committee on Electronic Possibilities)
Lines 9-14 (see Appendix 3, Committee 8) are ambiguous/confusing about how many there are in this committee. Suggested revision is as follows: “There shall be five (5) members of this committee, including the Editor of the JEI, AFEE Secretary-Treasurer, AFEE website manager, and two other members appointed by the President (having familiarity with electronic tools and media).” [This committee can always seek advice from experts whenever they wish; no need to add them to the committee officially.]

Click here for Appendix3

The Association for Evolutionary Economics

Second Call for Membership Renewal