Everyone has the same chance at the AER, right?, by John Whitehead: Wrong:

We spoke with Virginia economics professor William R. Johnson, who edited the edition of the Review in which the [Reinhart and Rogoff] paper first appeared.

This annual edition, "Papers and Proceedings," differs from all others in that the papers come out of presentations made at the yearly meeting of the American Economic Association, he said.

The papers are personally selected by the AEA's president-elect, in consultation with a committee.

As a result of these unusual circumstances, Johnson said, the editing of "Proceeding" papers is less rigorous.

"Normal peer review doesn't happen for these papers in the way of other issues of the AER." ...

But author prestige also comes into play, Johnson said, adding that that was true for all AER papers, not just the ones that appear in "Proceedings."