Conferences have been a pillar of academic thought in the western world for almost a century. Organizations including the American Economic Association (AEA) (organized in 1885, incorporated in 1923), the Royal Economic Society (RES) (incorporated in 1902, although their journal The Economic Journal dates back to 1891), the Western Economic Association International (WEAI) (1922) and the International Atlantic Economic Society (IAES) (1973) have lead the way with their annual meetings that draw anywhere from a couple hundred to over 10,000 annual visitors; and these are only the tip of the iceberg.

A quick count of this year’s economics and finance conferences brings us to over 400 worldwide conferences everywhere from NYC to Budapest to Pune to Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, which leads to the question: which ones to attend? We have taken the liberty of drawing up a list of some of the most reputable conferences organized by national and international economic and scientific organizations, covering a wide range of topics.

So here are some of our top picks (in alphabetical order):

ACE 2012 (Australian Conference of Economists)
July 8-12, Melbourne, Australia 
ACE2012 will host a distinguished panel of plenary speakers including two Nobel Laureates Sir James Mirrlees and Professor Christopher Pissarides; several panels; a range of special sessions; an all day Business Symposium; a PhD/Honours job fair and a wide range of refereed contributed papers.

AEA (American Economic Association) Annual Meeting
January 4-6, 2013, San Francisco, USA
The AEA Annual Meeting for 2012 has passed, but the 2013 Meeting in San Francisco has been announced! For the upcoming annual meetings of the regional US Economic Associations check their websites: Southern Economic Association, Eastern Economic Association, Midwest Economics Association.

CES (Chinese Economist Society) 2012 Annual Conference
June 23-24, Kaifeng, China
The theme of the conference is “Development beyond the Middle Income Trap: China in Transition”. The conference consists of keynote and invited talks, roundtable forums and parallel sessions. The list of invited speakers includes Nobel Prize Laureats Dale T. Mortensen (Northwestern University) and James Heckman (University of Chicago). A $1000 US prize will be awarded for the top two papers from junior economists.

EEA – ESEM 2012 (European Economic Association and Econometric Society European Meeting)
August 27-31, Malaga, Spain
The 2012 EEA-ESEM joint meeting will feature the work and findings of the leading scholars in economics, econometrics and related fields, and will provide an excellent opportunity to present your own research results. Speakers will include scholars from the leading American and European Institutions (Princeton, LSE, Columbia, Berkeley).

ERSA (European Regional Science Association) 2012 Congress
August 21-25, Bratislava, Slovakia
The ERSA Congress offers a wide number of sessions on the topic “Regions in Motion – Breaking the Path” hosted by the University of Economics in Bratislava. The program will include special sessions covering such topics like institutional economy, interdependency theory, creativity economy, regional economy etc. Ann Markusen, James P. LeSage, Johannes Bröcker and Peter Nijkamp will be present as Keynote spseakers.

ESAM12 (The Econometric Society Australasian Meeting)
July 3-6, Melbourne, Australia
The program of ESAM12 will consist of keynote speakers (including a 2010 Nobel Prize Winner Dale Mortensen and Professor Dani Rodrik, Harvard), speakers and contributed papers on a wide range of topics including theoretical and applied econometrics, microeconomics and macroeconomics. Scholars from Princeton, Yale, Duke and World Bank are among invited speakers.

ISSE (The International Society for Ecological Economics) 2012 Conference
June 16-19, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Run by the International Society for Ecological Economics, the topic for this biennial conference is ‘Ecological Economics and Rio+20: Challenges and Contributions for a Green Economy.’ Invited Speakers include Izabella Teixeira, Environment Minister of Brazil, and Yolanda Kakabadse, President of WWF.

RES (Royal Economic Society) 2012 Annual Conference
March 26-28, Cambridge, UK
The Annual Conference aims to bring together economists from government, industry, higher education, the financial sector, and journalism. The conference is open to all those interested in analytical economics and policy problems. Keynote lectures will be presented by Elhman Helpman, Ariel Pakes (Harvard University) and Nancy Stokey (University of Chicago). The plenary panel “Lessons from the European Debt Crisis” will be attended by scholars from Harvard, Columbia, Cambridge and European Central Bank.

WEAI (Western Economic Association International) 87th Annual Conference
June 29-July 3, San Francisco Conference
WEAI’s Annual Conference is held in the summer each year and attracts just over 1,000 attendees from around the world. Features of the Annual Conference include the Presidential Address and Luncheon, the Graduate Student Dissertation Workshop, Professional Development sessions, and participation by several Allied Economic Organizations.

73rd International Atlantic Economic Conference
March 28-31, Istanbul, Turkey
Economists from all areas of specialization are invited to the 73rd International Atlantic Economic Conference to discuss cutting edge approaches to the challenges of the world economy. Through the Society and its international conferences, economists from over 40 countries have the opportunity to become better acquainted with each other’s work. Papers in all interest areas are eligible.

If you think that there are other notable conferences that should be included in this list, leave us a comment with your reason why! (Please note, these are not sponsored listings.)

Photo Credit: United Nations Photo