Bach (Stanford University) wrote in the American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings (1971) that the JEE was to be the forum for scholarly work in economic education, primarily at the undergraduate level in colleges and universities, but including junior colleges and, to some extent, the high schools.

The Council for Economic Education assigned the JEE copyright and publishing responsibility to the nonprofit Heldref Publications in 1981.

The Council, however, retained responsibility for appointing the editor and providing financial support to the editorial office.

In 1983, Donald Paden (University of Illinois) became editor when the JEE expanded to a quarterly publication.

Late in 2009, William Walstad (University of Nebraska at Lincoln) became editor and Heldref sold the JEE to the for-profit Taylor & Francis Group.