Journal, Economia: Background

In the Fall of 2000, LACEA will publish the first issue of a new journal focusing on economic policy issues relevant to Latin America. The objective of this journal is to provide a forum for high-quality research directly applied to policy issues within and among countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The journal will go by the title Economia, and will be published by the Brookings Press.

The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced dramatic changes in economic policy in the last decade, decisively moving toward more open market systems. The reforms have gone hand in hand with a remarkable increase in the quality of the policy debate in the region. At the same time, a new generation of highly trained economists, many of them graduates of top-notch academic programs in North America and Europe, has reached positions of great influence and responsibility and the quality of economics research and teaching has improved markedly. Yet many of these policy debates remain focused at the country level. There is a limited number of forums at which economists and policy makers from the region can come together to share thoughts and experiences on given policy issues. And there are even fewer outlets which these policy lessons can be put into writing, subjected to strict academic standards, and made accessible to a broader audience, both within and beyond the region.

This context created important opportunities for a new journal, but one that offers a product that is clearly differentiated from run-of-the-mill academic publications. The new journal will have three distinguishing characteristics:

• It is a policy journal --that is, one in which new theories or techniques are applied to policy questions, and not simply presented for their own sake.

• It seeks papers on issues that are both at the forefront of the policy agenda and of broad interest to countries throughout the region. Examples include the design of regulatory frameworks for privatized utilities, lessons on avoiding Asia-style financial meltdown, managing the challenge of greater economic integration, and new research on the determinants of earnings inequality.

• It demands the highest standards of theoretical and statistical rigor, but only publishes papers that are written in a style and language that makes them accessible to policy makers.

The Executive Committee of LACEA appointed Andrés Velasco, of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the University of Chile, as its editor. The Editorial Board is made up of the following highly qualified academics, based in Latin America as well as outside the region (North America and Europe):

 

Based in Latin America: Eduardo Engel (Universidad de Chile) Francisco Ferreira (PUC-Rio, Brazil, and World Bank) Ilan Goldfajn (PUC-Rio, Brazil) Jose de Gregorio (Minister of Economy, Chile) Hugo Hopenhayn (Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Argentina) Roberto Steiner (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia)

Based in the United States: Raquel Fernández (NYU) Nora Lustig (Inter-American Development Bank and Brookings Institution) Carmen Reinhart (University of Maryland) Florencio López de Silanes (Harvard University) Carlos Vegh (UCLA)

The journal includes two kinds of papers. At least half the papers are commissioned by the Editorial Board, with an eye toward topics of policy relevance in the region. The remainder of the papers are chosen from the invited and submitted contributions presented at the LACEA annual meeting. The organizing committee of this annual meeting has the responsibility of suggesting papers to the Editorial Board. This is a major channel to disseminate research produced in the region which may otherwise lack international outlets. Both commissioned and submitted articles are subjected to standard refereeing procedures, and the Board and the Managing Editor retain full rights not to publish papers that do not meet the journal’s standards.

The papers are presented and discussed at twice-yearly panel meetings. The first of these meetings took place in May 2000, at the Center of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at NYU. The panel was made up of all authors, plus all associate editors of the journal, plus a selected number of individuals from throughout the region who were invited to serve for one-year terms. The second meeting is scheduled to coincide with the LACEA annual meeting on October 2000.