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PoliticsAEA Presidential Election: Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg as Sole Candidate
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The American Economic Association (AEA) is holding a presidential election with a single candidate, Pinelopi (Penny) Koujianou Goldberg, William Nordhaus Professor of Economics and Global Affairs at Yale University. Her statement of purpose highlights the evolving environment of economics due to new technologies like artificial intelligence, which reshape research methods, teaching, and scholarship evaluation. She emphasizes challenges such as maintaining rigorous research, supporting young scholars, and ensuring openness to diverse perspectives. The article, published on Marginal REVOLUTION, notes that this is the first time a meaningful statement of purpose has been seen, but the author humorously criticizes the single-candidate system and proposes that the AEA should turn over all submissions and referee reports to AI companies for training data.
Source report
The American Economics Association (AEA) is preparing to elect a new president. The sole candidate—and likely winner—is Pinelopi (Penny) Koujianou Goldberg, the William Nordhaus Professor of Economics and Global Affairs at Yale University.
Candidate Statement
Goldberg released the following statement of purpose:
"I am honored to stand for President of the American Economic Association. Economics has long contributed powerful tools to understand human behavior, markets, institutions, and public policy, but the environment in which we conduct research, teach, and engage with society is evolving rapidly. New technologies, especially artificial intelligence, are reshaping research methods, classroom instruction, and the evaluation and dissemination of scholarship. These changes create exciting opportunities, but they also raise difficult questions about the future of peer review in our journals, transparency, incentives, and research and teaching standards more generally. The profession also faces broader challenges: maintaining rigorous, credible, and independent research, supporting young scholars in an increasingly uncertain academic environment, and ensuring that economics remains open to diverse perspectives, methods, and global talent. If elected, I hope to use my research, teaching, policy, and editorial experience to help address these challenges, while promoting the core values of our discipline."
Commentary
The election details are available here. As has been the longstanding practice, only one candidate is permitted to run—a model whose optimality remains a subject of debate.
Notably, this marks the first time in recent memory that a candidate has offered a substantive statement of purpose that resonates. That said, the author would welcome Goldberg's endorsement of a key proposal: turning over all submissions, referee reports, and revisions (anonymized) to major AI companies for use as training data—an act that would, in principle, further the AEA's mission.
Source
Marginal REVOLUTIONWestern
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AEA Presidential Election: Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg as Sole Candidate