The field of academic finance has grown and evolved in the 47 years since the Journal of Financial Economics (JFE) began publishing papers. This paper examines detailed data on the 3,003 papers written by 3,358 different authors published in the JFE over the period 1974–2020. Advances in computing power and electronic communication have driven trends toward more empirical work, more coauthorship, and more complex papers. The set of authors, referees, and editors has also evolved as the field spans a much larger geographic footprint and as women have come to play a larger role in all aspects of academic finance. Growth in the demand for finance faculty has driven up faculty compensation and the demand for scarce journal space.