Journal of Asian Economics

published for
the American Committee on Asian Economic Studies, 1990 to June 2020

ACAES founded the Journal of Asian Economics in 1990 with a vision to serve its mission of promoting economic research on Asia and fostering engagement between Asian economists and their counterparts in the rest of the world. The Journal's achievements toward these ends were commemorated with an editorial in its 30th anniversary issue, here, and selection by the editors of 30 noteworthy articles, relayed in an ACAES newsletter, here. 

By 2020, the Journal of Asian Economics was established as the leader in the field of Asian economic studies based on citation metrics. With respect to the RePEc 10-year-simple impact factor, the Journal ranked in the 160s of more than 2000 economics journals. 

During its history under ACAES auspices, the Journal was led by three Editors-in-Chief: founder Manoranjan Dutta (1990-2007); Michael Plummer (2007-2015); and Calla Wiemer (2015-2020). These Editors-in-Chief were selected by the ACAES leadership for their dedication to the ACAES mission with the concurrence of the publisher/owner of the Journal (JAI Press until 1997, Elsevier thereafter).

In a break with established practice, Elsevier on March 18 offered Editor-in-Chief Wiemer a one-year terminal contract for 2020. Unilateral termination of the Editor-in-Chief, duly chosen by ACAES, would effectively sever the tie between ACAES and the Journal. The Journal's stakeholders rallied in support of Wiemer as Editor-in-Chief and the Journal's continued relationship with its parent organization with a letter writing campaign. The 43 stakeholder statements are posted here. Elsevier was unmoved by this heartfelt show of support and stood by its decision to terminate the ACAES Editor-in-Chief and, with that, the relationship to ACAES.