[4] The goal of the IEA is to promote personal contacts and mutual understanding among economists in different parts of the world through the organization of scientific meetings, through common research programs and by means of publications of an international character on problems of current importance.

[citation needed] The IEA is in effect a federation of national academic associations or committees representing the economists of each country.

[8] In the implementation of each project, invitations are sent to those individuals or research institutes—regardless of nationality—that appear in the circumstances to be best qualified to make a serious contribution to the study of the subject chosen.

East-West conferences have provided an opportunity for economists from Eastern and Western Europe to meet and discuss problems of common interest.

The organization of fifteen open international congresses: Rome 1956, Vienna 1962, Montreal 1968, Budapest 1974, Tokyo 1977, Mexico 1980, Madrid 1983, New Delhi 1986, Athens 1989, Moscow 1992, Tunis 1995, Buenos Aires 1999, Lisbon, 2002, Marrakech, 2005, Istanbul, Turkey, June 2008, Beijing, China, July 2011 and Dead Sea, Jordan, 2014.