A Brief History of the Journal of Economics and Statistics

1863 – 1877: Bruno Hildebrand
The Journal of Economics and Statistics ("Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik”) was established in 1862 by Bruno Hildebrand, one of the main representatives of the older school of German historical economics. Hildebrand was a professor in Jena and (co-)directed the department of economics there. He also founded and headed a regional statistical office and co-founded “Verein für Socialpolitik” (the leading association of German-speaking economists today).

1878 – 1915: Johannes Conrad
Johannes Conrad aimed at positioning the journal not only as a scientific platform but also as a link between science, interested practitioners and policy-makers. He believed that the science of economics had the important task of providing results that were of practical relevance.

1915 – 1933: Ludwig Elster
Ludwig Elster, one of Conrad's former postdoctoral students who later became a Prussian ministerial official, took over as editor after Conrad's death. Elster had already been in close and active contact with the journal before. Through the turmoil of war and hyperinflation, the journal underwent a substantial reduction in its number of pages – as did all journals at the time.

1934 – 1942: Otto von Zwiedineck-Südenhorst with Gerhard Albrecht
Germany's new rulers imposed a change of editors on the publisher. Otto Zwiedineck Edler von Südenhorst, the director of the seminar for statistics and actuarial science at the university of Munich, and Gerhard Albrecht, who had close links to the journal, continued the journal's respectable scientific work. The editors resigned in late 1942 to keep the journal from being subjected to censorship.

1943 – 1967/68: Friedrich Lütge and Erich Preiser
Friedrich Lütge and the publisher conducted difficult negotiations in Berlin to continue publication with independently selected editors. In 1943 and 1944 two volumes were published before the journal was eventually banned. Only in 1949 could the journal be published again, after major changes for the publisher (expropriation of the original publishing house in Jena and relocation to Stuttgart, publication by Gustav Fischer from 1953, now Lucius & Lucius). Erich Preiser died in August 1967, and Friedrich Lütge had to take his leave from the journal for health reasons in May 1968.

1968 – 1982: Knut Borchardt, Alfred E. Ott and Heinrich Strecker
The new editors were cleverly chosen: Knut Borchardt was Lütge’s student; Alfred E. Ott was Preiser’s student; and Heinrich Strecker, a statistician who had studied with Oskar Anderson sen., joined the editorial team. Under their guidance the Journal of Economics and Statistics developed well.

1983 – 1994: Alfred E. Ott with Heinrich Strecker, Heinz Lampert, Alois Oberhauser and Adolf Wagner
Knut Borchardt resigned from his editorial activities in late 1982. This afforded the opportunity to have Heinz Lampert, Alois Oberhauser and Adolf Wagner join the editorial board. Alfred E. Ott’s sudden death in 1994 was a turning point for the editors.

1995 – 2005: Adolf Wagner with Heinrich Strecker, Wolfgang Eichhorn (interim), Wolfgang Franz, Gerhard Kleinhenz, Heinz Lampert, Werner Neubauer, Alois Oberhauser (until 2000), Peter Stahlecker (since 1999), Dietmar Wellisch (since 1999)
Adolf Wagner took over Alfred E. Ott's role of managing editor in 1995. In agreement with the publisher, Lucius & Lucius, the editorial board was expanded by including further co-editors, as did many scientific journals at the time.

2005 – 2007: Wolfgang Franz with Gerhard Kleinhenz, Werner Smolny, Peter Stahlecker, Adolf Wagner, Joachim Wagner, Dietmar Wellisch and Peter Winker and the newly established advisory board
As managing editor, Wolfgang Franz put more emphasis on scientific contributions linking a strong theoretical foundation to empirical analysis. Furthermore, the journal now covered new research areas in special issues.

2008 – today: Peter Winker with Thiess Büttner (since 2018), Wolfgang Franz (until 2018), Gerhard Kleinhenz (until 2008), Regina Riphahn (since 2015), Werner Smolny, Peter Stahlecker (until 2014) , Adolf Wagner (until 2011), Joachim Wagner und Dietmar Wellisch (until 2010) and the advisory board.

A more detailed description of the period before 1985 can be found in the main index of the Journal of Economics and Statistics, volume 202, 1986, pp. 1 – 51.