The European Economic Review (EER) was started in 1969 by Elsevier Science, which continues to own and publish it. In 1985, the first Council of the European Economic Association (EEA) addressed the issue of how best to set up an Association journal. At that time, it was feared that a new journal would not be viable and the advantages of linking up with an existing journal seemed obvious. Hence, the EEA Council decided to enter into an agreement with Elsevier and designate the EER as its official journal, with effect from Volume 30, 1986. This agreement was subsequently renewed at intervals of about five years. The most recent agreement between the EEA and Elsevier remained in effect until December 31, 2002, but had to be either renewed or terminated one year before that date.

From 1986, the EER improved steadily in quality. The link with the EEA gave it automatic circulation to all individual EEA; this link also guaranteed supplies of high-quality papers from the annual EEA Congress and the International Seminar on Macroeconomics, as well as a mechanism for attracting top-quality editors. The quality improvement was reflected in a steady increase in the EER's impact factor. Recent studies suggest that the EER is securely within the top-twenty economics journals worldwide.

However, these successes could not compensate for the anomalous situation whereby a large and increasingly successful professional association did not own its own journal. Dissatisfaction at Elsevier's pricing policies also persisted, and was highlighted by the adverse publicity arising from Ted Bergstrom's study (published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives in Fall 2001), showing the EER to be in another top-twenty list: Bergstroms "Rogue's Gallery" of the most expensive journals to institutions.

In the light of these concerns, the Executive and Council of the EEA decided to terminate the agreement with Elsevier, meaning that the EER ceased to be the official journal of the EEA as of January 1, 2003. After extensive negotiations and a competitive bidding process, the EEA decided to launch a new journal, the Journal of the European Economic Association (JEEA), published for the EEA by MIT Press from early 2003. The EEA also decided to further raise the quality of its journal by making the JEEA a truly global outlet for the best research in economics, competing for top articles with the five leading journals in the field.

Most importantly, the EEA also decided to further raise the quality of its journal by making the JEEA a truly global outlet for the best research in economics, competing for top articles with the five leading journals in the field.