Conflict of interests

Theoretical Economics uses the definition of conflict of interest (COI) from the rules and procedures (Section 8.8) of the Econometric Society. The bylaws describe the COI's of editors and co-editors, but the same rules apply to referees.

The policy, rephrased, is:

A potential reviewer will not referee papers of their current colleagues, their thesis advisors, their active co-authors, and students for whom they were the main advisor. In addition, they will not handle the paper of any person they advised in a less central way if the paper is either submitted within two years of the person’s graduation or contains work from the time the person was a student.

For the purposes of this policy, a person is a "colleague" if he/she is (a) a member of the same permanent department (even if he/she has other part time positions), or (b) a member of a different department at the same university, or (c) a member of a department the potential reviewer is visiting, except that cases (b) and (c) exclude people with whom the potential reviewer has no collegial interaction. Students advised "in a less central way" include those for whom the potential reviewer wrote a letter of recommendation.