At the start of a new decade and of the 30th anniversary of SAET, I would like to associate the Executive Committee of the society in wishing all the members and friends of SAET a happy and fruitful year, bringing new ideas and new projects and advancing even more theoretical economics, our main objective. Since its founding, SAET has achieved an impressive course, extending successfully the number, the size and the topic range of the conferences it organizes worldwide, and patronizing two well recognized academic journals with impact factors steadily increasing.

Last year’s accomplishments, with the 19th annual conference taking place in Ischia, were a perfect proof of this remarkable achievement. For that I would like first to mention Tim Kehoe, our last President, for his commitment, his enthusiasm and his talent to communicate. The presidential address was a clear and convincing presentation, showing how appropriate general equilibrium theory is for formulating empirically founded policy recommendations. Thank you Tim! Many thanks also to Nancy Stokey, for accepting to be our First Vice-President, meaning that she will be our next President.

The conference in Ischia, which gathered a record of more than 600 participants, was fantastically organized and I would like to express our gratitude to the local team and in particular to Achille Basile and Maria Gabriella Graziano for this great success.

Three coming events are advertised on the SAET website. First, on June 1-2, the Mediterranean Workshop in Economic Theory will be organized in Porto (Portugal), in association with SAET, with the objective of developing scientific exchanges between researchers in Africa, Europe and the Mediterranean region. Then, on June 7-9 the traditional European Workshop in Economic Theory will take place in Akko (Israel) with the Debreu Lecture delivered by Robert Aumann on June 8^th, his 90th birthday. Finally, on June 14-17, the 20th annual SAET Conference, will be organized in Seoul (Korea). We warmly thank the local organizers of these three events. Their successes of course rely fundamentally on a large participation of our members. The world is living a difficult period, with several major risks threatening our economies. The acceleration of global warming and the associated energy choices, migration and refugee movements and the crisis of democracy, increasing inequality, the weakening of free trade and competition and the problems linked to the digital economy, all these issues require decisions and new rules not only based on facts and numbers, but also on innovative theoretical and conceptual thinking, using the tools of economic theory and its related fields. The SAET events are privileged international meetings where the results of such innovative thinking can be presented and discussed.

Finally, let me also mention another matter for which member participation is crucial. This is the election of new fellows supervised by the Fellowship Committee chaired by Larry Samuelson (thank you Larry!) on the basis of nominations made by the individual members and the Nominating Subcommittee.

Wishing you again a wonderful year, I look forward to seeing you next June.

Warm Regards,

Claude d’Aspremont, CORE January 1^st 2020.