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The JOLATE Meetings series started in 1999 in the National University of the South (UNS), Bahía Blanca, Argentina, under the title “New Trends in Economic Theory”. In 2000 they were organized by the National University of San Luis, Argentina, and it was agreed that these meetings will be held annually and at a relatively low cost in order to promote research in Economic Theory among young researchers. The organization of the JOLATE has an Evaluation Committee formed every year in an ad-hoc manner, which is responsible for accepting or rejecting the submitted papers.
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In 2001, the meeting was sponsored and financially supported by the University of the Republic, in Uruguay, and was held at the University of Punta del Este. These first three meetings were partially funded by the ICTP - The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy.
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In 2002, the IV JOLATE were jointly organized by the ITAM (Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology), the UAM (Metropolitan Autonomous University) and the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico), in Mexico City, Mexico. In 2003, they were held at the University of Chile. In 2004, the meeting should have been held in Lima, Peru, but last-minute financial difficulties led to its suspension.
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In the year 2005, the VI JOLATE were held at the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, and in 2006 they took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in conjunction with the Workshop on Mathematical Economics, in honor of Aloisio Araujo. In 2007 they were held in Medellín, Colombia, in the EAFIT, and in 2008 the meeting took place again in the National University of San Luis, Argentina.
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In 2009, the UNS, Argentina, hosted again the JOLATE. The invited speakers were Yves Balasko (France), Aloisio Araujo (Brazil), Lionnello Punzo (Italy), Martin Puchet (Mexico), Daniel Heymann (CEPAL), Omar Chisari (UADE), Alejandro Neme (UNSL), Leandro Arozamena (Di Tella), among others. The following year they were held at the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
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In 2011, the meeting was held in the city of Punta del Este (Uruguay), organized by the Department of Economics of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of the Republic, the Institute of Mathematics of the Faculty of Engineering and the University of Montevideo. In 2012 it was held at the University of Los Andes, Bogotá Colombia. The following year, the Faculty of Economics of the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí, (Mexico) was the host for the third time of the JOLATE. In 2014, they were held again in the country of Mexico, but in the city of Guanajuato, in the Mathematics Research Center (CIMAT), which is a public research center within the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) Centers System.
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In 2015, the XVI JOLATE were held for the third time in the province of San Luis, Argentina, organized by the Game Theory Group of the San Luis Institute of Applied Mathematics (IMASL), in conjunction with the Latin American Association for Economic Theory (ALTE) and the Department of Mathematics of the National University of San Luis. In 2016, the XVII JOLATE were held at the Catholic University of Brasilia, Brazil.
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In 2017, the XVIII JOLATE took place jointly with the 5th International Conference on Dynamics Games and Science 2018 (DGS-V) in Mexico. Similarly, the following year (2018), the XIX JOLATE and the 6th International Conference on Dynamics Games and Science (DGS-VI) were held jointly in Madrid.