For authors

The Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) is a semi-annual academic conference and journal that pairs rigorous research with policy analysis to address urgent economic challenges of the day. BPEA emphasizes rigorous analysis that has an empirical orientation, takes real-world institutions seriously, and is relevant to economic policy. Working drafts of the papers are presented and discussed at conferences held twice each year in spring and fall, and the final versions of the papers and comments along with summaries of the conference discussions are published in the journal several months later. Topics covered by BPEA include fiscal and monetary policy, consumption and saving behavior, business investment, housing, asset pricing, labor markets, wage- and price-setting, business cycles, long-run economic growth, the distribution of income and wealth, international capital flows and exchange rates, international trade and development, and the macroeconomic implications of health care costs, energy supply and demand, environmental issues, and the education system. Although most BPEA papers are solicited by editors, unsolicited proposals are welcome. Interested authors should submit the following materials via the submission form below.

• Proposal:
  • a completed draft paper OR
  • a detailed paper outline (no more than five double-spaced pages) with specified data sources and preliminary empirical results.
• Letter to editors: A one-page letter outlining the proposal.

Editors evaluate the proposals on a rolling basis based on their originality, analytical rigor, policy relevance, and the needs of the conference program. Editorial decisions are typically made nine months prior to each conference – proposals received by December 1 are considered for the following fall conference, and those received by June 1 for the spring. Certain proposals may be considered for conferences outside of the normal evaluation timeline, depending on the timeliness of the topics and the program needs. Proposals from early career researchers and members of underrepresented groups in the economics profession are encouraged. Given the volume of proposals we receive, only the authors of accepted proposals will be contacted, typically within three weeks.

Complete submission form here

More information on the past BPEA papers and conferences can be found here. If you have any questions, please contact Haowen Chen ([email protected]). 

*Please submit your manuscript in Word and PDF.

General Format

• Page limits for the final version of the manuscript will be strictly enforced as follows unless otherwise noted by the editors:
  • Paper: 45 pages max 
  • Comment: 15 pages max 
  • Short paper (for thematic panel/symposium): 15 pages max 
  • Page limits are inclusive of figures, tables, and references. This limit assumes a standard figure including caption and note takes up half a page.
• 12 point Times New Roman, 1.5 line spaced.
• One primary affiliation for each author to list on the manuscript.

Abstract & Section Headings

• Abstract should be within 100-200 words.
• Introductory section does not use heading (e.g., “Introduction”) or section number. 
• For sections following the introduction, clearly indicate up to four levels of subheads following the format below. Roman numerals and letters are used to number the A- and B-level subheads.

I. Section Heading (A Level)

First paragraph on a new line, no indent.

Next paragraph, 0.5” indent. 

I.A. Subhead Heading (B Level), 0.5” indent

First paragraph on a new line; all paragraphs with 0.5” indent. 

C-LEVEL HEADING (NO NUMBER), 0.5” INDENT First paragraph on the same line.

Next paragraph, 0.5” indent.

D-level heading (no number), 0.5” indent. First paragraph on the same line.

Next paragraph, 0.5” indent.

In-Text Citation & Reference List

Please prepare citations/references in Chicago Style and note the following style items specific to BPEA:

• Each in-text citation should have a corresponding entry in the reference list, and vice versa.
• Use “and others” (not et al.) for works with more than three authors. 
• Author names should be spelled as they appear in the original publication. This includes accents, middle initials, Jr., etc.
• First names are written out in full in place of initials where known. If the same author appears in multiple references, and different styles are used in the original publications, defer to the longer name.
• Reference to BPEA paper
  • Pre-2006: Use issue number.
    • Obstfeld, Maurice, and Kenneth S. Rogoff. 2005. “Global Current Account Imbalances and Exchange Rate Adjustments.” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, no. 1: 67–123.
  • Post-2006: Use season (Fall/Spring).
    • Williams, John C. 2009. “Heeding Daedalus: Optimal Inflation and the Zero Lower Bound.” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Fall: 1–37.

Figures & Tables

• Include figures/tables in the text, near the relevant text with sources. 
• If a figure/table is reused/adapted from other papers, authors should obtain proper permissions and credit the copyright holders (see information below).
• BPEA redesigns the figures in black and white for print. Do NOT refer to color or line pattern (dashed, dotted, etc.) when discussing figures in main text or figure notes.
• Figures should be submitted in SVG (preferable), EPS, PDF, or Excel with underlying data.

Reuse a Figure/Table

• What is an original figure/table?
  • An original figure/table is created by you and has not been published (including posting online in a working paper). No permission or attribution is needed to include it in your work.
• What is a reproduced figure/table?
  • A reproduced figure/table is not original, but an exact copy of a figure/table that has been published, in print or online (including in a working paper). You must request permission from the copyright owner, and provide proper attribution in your work. The copyright owner is often the publisher of the original figure/table.
• What is an adapted figure/table?
  • An adapted figure/table is not original, but “adapted” from a figure/table that has been published, in print or online including in a working paper (looks similar but has been changed). Permission from the copyright owner (usually the original publisher) and attribution to the source are required. 

Online Appendix

Appendix (for paper only) will be published online only, unedited, and referred to in the text as “online appendix,” following numbering convention given in the original manuscript.

Brookings has extensive conflict of interest policies, to which all employees and scholars—both resident and nonresident—must adhere. These policies outline the institution’s guidelines and procedures for identifying, resolving, disclosing and/or otherwise managing real, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest that may arise. We also have a specific policy for outside contributors, who are not employees or do not have formal affiliations with the institution. These policies can be found here.

*Outside contributors for BPEA will be asked to complete a disclosure form when signing their publishing agreements. 

General Policy

It is the policy of BPEA to publish papers/comments only if the data and code used in the analysis are clearly and precisely documented and are readily available to any researcher for replication. Authors of papers/comments that contain empirical work, simulations, or experimental results must provide to BPEA, in electronic form prior to publication, the data, code/programs, and other details of the computations sufficient to permit replication. These materials will be posted on the Brookings website with published articles. If the data are proprietary or cannot be provided publicly for other reasons, authors/discussants must notify the editors and their BPEA Project Contact when submitting final manuscripts, ensure the data source is properly attributed in their work, and document how the data can be accessed in a ReadMe file. Manuscripts not conforming to this policy will not be published.

Specific Policy for Econometric and Simulation Papers

The materials should include the data sets and code/programs used to run the final models, plus a description of how previous intermediate data sets and programs were employed to create the final data sets. Authors/discussants are invited to submit these intermediate data files and programs as an option; if they are not provided, authors/discussants must fully cooperate with investigators seeking to conduct a replication who request them. The data files and programs can be provided in any format using any statistical package or software. However, the programs must run without crashing on any computer with the correct software. Authors must provide a Readme file listing all included files and documenting the purpose and format of each file provided, as well as instructing a user on how replication can be conducted. 

Specific Policy for Experimental Papers

The material delivered should include the following:

• Original instructions should be summarized as part of the discussion of experimental design in the text and provided in full as an appendix. The instructions should be presented in a way that, together with the design summary, conveys the protocol clearly enough that the design could be replicated by a reasonably skilled experimentalist. For example, if different instructions were used for different sessions, the correspondence should be indicated.
• Information about subject eligibility or selection, such as exclusions based on past participation in experiments, college major, etc. should be summarized as part of the discussion of experimental design.
• Any computer programs, configuration files, or scripts used to run the experiment and/or to analyze the data should be summarized as appropriate in the text and provided in full as an appendix. Data summaries, intermediate results, and advice about how to use the programs are welcome but not required.
• Raw data from the experiment should be summarized as appropriate in the text and provided in full as an appendix, with sufficient explanation to make it possible to use the submitted computer programs to replicate the data analysis.
• Other information, such as applications to institutional review boards, consent forms, or Web signup and disclosure forms, is not required or expected. If it desired to make this kind of information public, it should be posted on authors/discussants’ own websites. 

• Before the conference: Any version of the draft is strictly under embargo. But authors can share a draft in private for feedback from colleagues, which we encourage (e.g., presenting at a private seminar, private email exchange, etc.). But the draft should NOT be publicly circulated. 
• After the conference (for working paper submission and posting on personal/institutional websites): Conference draft and final paper/comment (the unedited manuscript) can be posted online or submitted to a working paper series, provided that it includes an acknowledgement of BPEA: “This article is prepared for the [Season/Year] Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) Conference. The final version will be published in the [Season/Year] BPEA issue.” 
• After the conference (for journal publication): Any version of the final paper/comment that’s undergoing or has completed the production process (editing, typesetting, and review) should NOT be shared publicly before the journal is published.

BPEA authors/discussants must use generative AI tools responsibly, following the guidelines of Brookings and Johns Hopkins University Press.

BPEA does not accept work substantially written by AI tools or permit listing them as (co-)authors including in citations and references. (While citing AI-generated content is acceptable, the citation format should not list AI tools as authors. Please refer to Chicago Manual of Style for guidance.) Each author/discussant is solely accountable for the quality, integrity, and entirety of their work. 

Use of AI tools in research design, method, or process (e.g., collect, categorize, or analyze data) should be documented in the work, with the model and version used and prompts. While not all use of AI tools has to be formally declared in the work, BPEA authors/discussants will be asked to disclose all use via a disclosure form when signing the publishing agreements. 

We encourage authors/discussants to use our templates when preparing the manuscript:

• Paper
• Comment