Secretary's Report (2015)
Econometrica, Vol. 84, No. 1 (January, 2016), 373–381
THE ECONOMETRIC SOCIETY ANNUAL REPORTS
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY
MONTRÉAL
AUGUST 16, 2015
1. THE SOCIETY AND ITS MEMBERSHIP
THE SOCIETY’S MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS ARE PRESENTED in Table I, where the
membership is classified according to institutional membership and individual
membership. The number of institutional members has continued to decline.
Individual membership has been stable over the past ten years; it has picked
up this year, perhaps as a consequence of the World Congress.
Table II displays the division between print and online and online only memberships
and subscriptions. Since the choice between these two alternatives was
offered in 2004, there has been a continued shift toward online only.
Table III compares the Society’s membership and the number of institutional
subscribers with those of the American Economic Association. (For the membership
category these figures include ordinary, student, free, and life members
for both the ES and the AEA.) The ES/AEA ratio had been increasing, reaching
a peak of 35.9 percent in 2010. Since then, the ratio has declined to 28.2%.
The ratio for institutional members has increased this year, mainly because the
AEA institutional membership dropped sharply.
The geographic distribution of ordinary and student members by countries
and regions as of June 30 of the current and selected previous years is shown
in Table IV. The table shows individual data on countries with more than 10
members in 2010. Membership increased in the United Kingdom and Canada,
and especially in China, India, and the new African region. It decreased in
Australia and in Japan. Total membership increased by 0.6%.
Table V shows the percentage distribution of ordinary and student members
by regions as of June 30 of the current and selected previous years. Like last
year, the shares of Europe and North America in total membership increased,
to a total of 77.6%. The share of Australasia fell and that of Africa increased.
Finally, Table VI presents the percentage distribution of institutional subscribers
by regions as of June 30 of the current and the previous four years. It
shows that the decline in institutional membership over the past few years is
mostly imputable to the European region.
