National Economic Association
learned society of economics
The National Economic Association (NEA) is a learned society established in 1969, focused on initiatives in the field of economics.
The purposes of the Association are "to promote the professional lives of minorities within the profession. In addition to continuing its founding mission, the organization is particularly interested in producing and distributing knowledge of economic issues that are of exceptional interest to promoting economic growth among native and immigrant African Americans, Latinos, and other people of color." Membership in the Association is available to professionals and graduate students in Economics and related disciplines. The NEA publishes the Review of Black Political Economy and regularly collaborates with the Allied Social Science Associations, American Economic Association, and American Society of Hispanic Economics.
History
The NEA was established in 1969 as the "Caucus of Black Economists" in New York City at the annual economists' convention that year. Its founders, Charles Wilson and Marcus Alexis, with Thaddeus Spratlen, began "an organized effort to challenge the American Economic Association (AEA) to engage in strategies that increase opportunities for black economists’ development." They were successful in persuading the AEA to establish a Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession (CSMGEP) and to sponsor a summer program that helps undergraduates of color prepare for graduate school admission.
Founder Bernard Anderson of the Wharton School of Business said that when the group first met, the leaders of the American Economic Association called the police. "They thought we were a bunch of radicals who wanted to disrupt the convention,” Mr. Anderson said, “when all we wanted to be was economists.”
In 1975, the group was reorganized as the "National Economic Association" to focus on initiatives independent of the CSMGEP, particularly awarding recognition to Black economics for their accomplishments in the economics profession.
Activities
The annual meetings of the NEA are held in conjunction with the annual Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) meetings each January, and include multiple panels of research presentations.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “National Economic Association” is learned society of economics. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through National, Economic and Association, not as a finished interpretation.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q85846750. VIAF identifies the subject as 144041570. The Library of Congress control number is n79128345. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1969 and 1975.
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This entry incorporates text from “National Economic Association” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.