Two comments on the AER's single-blind policy

From the inbox:

On April 15, 2011, the Executive Committee voted to drop "double-blind" refereeing for the Association's journals. The change to "single-blind" refereeing (the referees' identity remains undisclosed) is effective July 1, 2011. Easy access to search engines increasingly limits the effectiveness of the double-blind process in maintaining author anonymity. Double-blind refereeing also increases administrative costs of the journals and makes it harder for referees to identify an author’s potential conflicts of interest arising, for example, from consulting.

Two comments:

1. Expectations matter: I'll need to hurry to get that AER submission ready before July 1.
2. The more things change, the more they stay the same: I haven't refereed a double-blind paper in a number of years, regardless of journal policy.

Note: I've never submitted (nor will I), refereed a submission or read an AER article (the last in covers the last decade). Like many economists, I enjoy talking about the journal as if it makes a difference in my day to day operations.