The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) is an international association of economists with common research interests in Latin America. It was founded in July 1992, to encourage professional interaction and foster increased dialogue among researchers and practitioners whose work focuses on the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean. Since 1996, its Annual Meetings bring together scholars, practitioners and students to discuss research papers and listen to invited keynote speakers who present the latest academic findings in economic and social development issues. LACEA fosters several thematic research networks, publishes the academic journal Economia, and administers the digital repository LACER-LACEA.
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Objectives of LACEA
The objectives of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association are:
A Brief History
It was formed in 1992 to facilitate the exchange of ideas among economists and policymakers who focus their work on the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean region. The idea of creating such an association of economists was put forward during the April 1991 Washington, D.C. meetings of the Latin American Studies Association by Michael Conroy, then a professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin. A seven-member Organizing Committee, led by Nora Lustig - then at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC - was appointed. The Organizing Committee obtained support from a number of leading scholars in the field, identified the initial Executive Committee, drafted the Association's bylaws, and applied for membership to the Allied Social Science Association (ASSA), officially launching LACEA.
Over one hundred economists from throughout the region were invited and accepted the invitation to be charter members of LACEA. On July 1, 1994 the charter members officially approved LACEA's bylaws and its first Executive Committee.
Administration Structure
LACEA is governed by an Executive Committee consisting of fourteen voting members: the President, the Vice-President, and twelve Directors-at-large. The past President, the Secretary and the Treasurer are ex-officio members of the Executive Committee, with no voting rights. Each two years, the active members of the Association vote for the new Vice-President (who becomes the President after two years) and for six new members of the Executive Committee (who serve for four years).
LACEA's Annual Meetings
LACEA's Annual Meeting is the annual academic conference of the Association. It is organized in cooperation with a local organization or institution.
The main goal of these meetings is to encourage the debate on relevant economic issues for the region, where leading scholars, academics, policy makers, international financial institutions’ officials and economists from the private sector participate actively. On average since 2010, 560 economists have attended LACEA's meetings, and 280 papers have been presented during the three-day conference.
LACEA's Sponsors
The Association is financed mainly from voluntary contributions from international organizations, like the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank, the Latin American Development Bank (CAF), the International Monetary Fund, and (until 2015) the Global Development Network.
LACEA's Networks
To help promote the interaction of young and seasoned economists, as well as social scientists and development practitioners, LACEA sponsors eight research networks: the Network on Inequality and Poverty (NIP); the Political Economy Group (PEG); the Trade, Integration and Growth Network (TIGN); the Impact Evaluation Network (IEN); the Workshop on International Economics and Finance (IE&F); the Labor Network (LN); the America Latina Crime and Policy Network (AL CAPONE); and the Economic History Network.
Journal
Economia is the academic journal of the Association, published since 2000 twice a year by the Brooking Press. It contains peer-reviewed research papers and reviews covering a range of topics in applied and empirical economics. Economia also organizes a session during the Annual Meetings, where a selection of published papers is presented and discussed. In addition to LACEA's main institutional donors, Yale University, Universidad de los Andes, and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University have supported Economia.
The following have been Editors and Associate Editors of Economia (with their affiliation at the time):
LACER-LACEA Repository
LACER-LACEA digital repository is a network that provides access to other repositories containing books, reports, journals, working papers and databases on Latin American economic and related topics, produced for public use by international organizations and academic institutions. The LACER-LACEA digital repository supports optimal discoverability and re-usability of the content by complying with Dublin Core and the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting.
Vox.LACEA
Vox.LACEA is an online resource center to promote the dissemination of research-based policy analysis, academic articles, interviews, debates and teaching materials. The intended audience is economists of all levels of experience working at governments, international organizations, academia and the private sector.
Carlos Diaz-Alejandro Prize
LACEA's Diaz-Alejandro Prize is designed to honor the memory and contribution of Carlos Federico Diaz-Alejandro (1938-1985), the most prominent Latin American economist of his generation, and to encourage high quality research on economic issues relevant to Latin America. The prize is awarded to an individual who has made a significant contribution or a body of contributions to the economic analysis of issues relevant to Latin America.
The recipients of the Diaz-Alejandro Prize have been:
Juan Luis Londoño Prize
LACEA's Londoño Prize is designed to honor the memory and contribution of es:Juan Luis Londoño (1958-2003) a Colombian economist committed to improving social policies, and to encourage high quality and policy relevant research on socioeconomic issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. The prize is awarded every two years to the best paper on social issues presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association.
Legal Status
On December 3, 1996, LACEA was incorporated under section 402 of the New York Not-for-profit Corporation Law as Type A Education Not-for-Profit Corporation in the State of New York. On August 2, 1999 was recognized by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as a tax exempt nonprofit corporation under Section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code as an organization described in section 501(c)(3).
In 2015, LACEA registered the following at the United States Patent and Trademark Office: its name and logo, for association services, namely promoting the interests of economic researchers and economists whose work focuses on the economies of the Latin America and the Caribbean; and the Economia Journal, for journals in the field of economics and public policy featuring topics related to Latin America and articles by Latin American economists.