About the Association
The American Finance Association (AFA) is the premier academic organization devoted to the study and promotion of knowledge about financial economics.
The AFA was planned at a meeting in December 1939 in Philadelphia. The first journal of the American Finance Association was called American Finance (link to first issue) and was published in 1942. The journal was renamed The Journal of Finance and became a regular serial journal in August 1946 when Association dues were $3 a year. Association membership has grown steadily over time. Today the AFA has over 8,000 members and dues are $40 a year. The AFA sponsors an annual meeting each January where the President speaks on a chosen topic and papers which cover the gamut of financial topics are presented. The current President of the Association is Robert Stambaugh of the University of Pennsylvania. Duane Seppi of Carnegie Mellon serves as Executive Secretary and Treasurer. The Association has officers and a board of directors who assist in key decisions and a set of by laws governing those decisions.
Purpose of the AFA:
- to provide for the mutual association of persons with an interest in finance
- to improve public understanding of financial problems, and
- to provide for the exchange of financial ideas through the distribution of a periodical and other media;
- to encourage the study of finance in colleges and universities;
- to conduct such other activities as may be appropriate for a non-profit, professional society in the field of finance.