The formatting rules for citations and reference lists are perhaps the most particular and arbitrary of all. If you do not work with references frequently, it is very easy to forget the nuances. The editors are happy to help with this task. If you can simply get us the key information we need, we can deal with the formatting at the production stage.
This section is not meant to be comprehensive. It lays out the general principles only. See section 13 and section 14 of the Chicago Manual of Style for more details than you ever wanted to know.
The purpose of a reference list is to make it possible for others to "check your work" or at least follow along. To that end, the first rule of references is to provide all the information your reader might need to track down the source in question.
When it comes to formatting, first and foremost, be consistent. Even if your references do not strictly adhere to AER preferences, if they are consistent and sufficient, they may not require revision.
AER preference is to use Chicago's author-date reference style, outlined in detail in section 13 of the Chicago Manual of Style.
For the in-line citations, that means the last names of the authors and the date of publication (with no intervening punctuation), followed when necessary by the relevant page numbers.
Polan 2006
Ward and Burns 2007, 52
Barnes et al. 2008, 118–119
In the reference list you typically have the following information, separated by periods:
Wherever possible, provide an authoritative hyperlink. If the document has a DOI, provide it. If it's a GoA document, prefer a link to https://open.alberta.ca as opposed to ministry webpages, which change frequently.