Economics Journals: A Chronological Account

Much of what follows is a highly speculative sketch on the historical development of economic journals; we are looking for any good resource or authority on the history of these journals to correct our brief account.

Key: * - "Light", "political" or "news-oriented" economics journal/magazine
# - not principally dedicated to economics; only occasionally publishes economics essays.

Dates specify date of first issue (and, if applicable, last issue). Journals are ordered chronologically from date of first issue. Acronyms and nicknames we use in this website are given under journal titles. (Click here for alphabetical list of journal acronyms)

Pre-Enlightenment (pre-1750)

The means of communication of economic ideas have, of course, varied over the centuries. Medieval scholastic writers expressed their economic theories mostly in religious treatises on law and justice (half of them titled De justitie et jure!). In the 17th and 18th Centuries, Mercantilists and other economic writers published their work (usually anonymously) as popular pamphlets and books, mostly privately printed and privately distributed. Throughout this time, only a handful of regularly-published journals existed. These were set up largely to review scientific literature that was published elsewhere rather than as a repository for new essay-length treatises. The following were the two leading journals in Europe:

Journal des Savants (France, 1665-)#

• J de Savants. 1665-1929 are archived online at Gallica.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (Britain, 1665-)#

• Phil Trans of RS. Parts of this are archived online at ILEJ. 1665-1886 and 1887-1929 archived online at Gallica

Enlightenment Journals (c. 1750-1800)

Around the mid-18th Century, gripped by the Enlightenment spirit, a new means of communication emerged, the learned journal or review. The demand during this period was clear: the middle classes were looking for "self-improvement", the educated classes looking for exciting debates and new ideas, and for the nobility looking for topics for social conversation (perfect for poseurs!).

The success of Denis Diderot's Encyclop・ｽdie, published between 1751 and 1765, was the great spur for the development of journals. True, the public had always demanded magazines -- weekly or monthly publications dedicated to witty, political position papers, current news or contemporary dramatic and literary criticism, like the early 18th century light magazines Mercure de France or the Tatler. But what the Encyclop・ｽdie specifically taught was that the public was willing to digest high-level theoretical essays -- bound together, published regularly over time and distributed as fascicules to subscribers. In short, journals. It seems as if encyclopedias, and not magazines, are the true antecedents of the modern scholarly journal.

There was an explosion of high-quality learned journals in the 1750s and 1760s, particularly in France. Several of them were exclusively dedicated to serious treatises on political economy. The following were the leading journals of the period where economic writers were welcome:

Scots Magazine (Britain, 1739-1826)#

• Main outlet for Scottish Enlightenment writers., Later referred to as the Edinburgh Magazine, and then disappeared. Modern version restarted in 1924.

Encyclop・ｽdie, ou Dictionnaire raisonn・ｽEdes sciences, des métiers et des arts. (France, 1751-1765)#

• The most famous publication of the French Enlightenment era, edited by Denis Diderot and d"Alembert. Its entries -- polemical but high-level discussions on theoretical questions -- made it seem more like a series of pamplets bound into a set of volumes, rather than the conventional "dictionary" it was intended to be. Furthermore, the distribution of the Encyclop・ｽdie -- piecemeal, over time, to a set of subscribers -- was effectively "journal-like". All the leading social philosophers and economists of the time contributed to it.

Journal oeconomique (France, 1751-1772)

• Prestigious Neo-Colbertiste journal.

Novelliste Oeconomique et Littéraire (France, 1754-1761)

Edinburgh Review (Britain, 1755-1756)#

• Short-lived journal (unrelated to its later namesake) which was an important outlet for the Scottish Enlightenment philosophers. Closed by the joint action of Presbyterian clergymen and Tory officials.

Journal du Commerce (Belgium, 1759-1762)

Gazette du Commerce (France, 1763-1783)*

• More a business newspaper than a journal, its heavier articles were published separately as a supplement, the Journal d'agriculture, du commerce et des finances.

Journal d'agriculture, du commerce et des finances (France, 1765-1783)

• JdACF. Neo-Colbertise journal, published monthly as a repository for the "heavier" articles in the Gazette du Commerce. In the period 1765 to 1766, when Dupont de Nemours was its editor, it served as a Physiocratic outlet, but was subsequently barred to them.

Ephémérides du Citoyen (France, 1765-1772)

• Ephem de Cit. Main Physiocratic journal, founded by abb・ｽEBaudeau and, from 1769, edited by Dupont de Nemours. Eventually suppressed by the authorities.

Nouvelles Ephémérides Economiques (France, 1774-1766, 1788?).

• Nouv Ephem. Physiocratic journal, as revived by Jacques Turgot.

Ephemeriden der Menschheit (Germany, 1776-1782)

• German attempt to copy the Physiocrats.

Treatises and Reviews (c.1800-1850)

Then something happened. We are not quite sure what, but it seems as if, by at least the early 1790s, many of the learned journals specialized in economics disappeared. Doubtlessly, some were closed down by the nervousness of kings and clergy. Perhaps this was reinforced by the passing of the Enlightenment's penchant for self-improvement and the subsequent exigencies of revolution and war. We are not quite sure.

What seems certain is that the means of economic communication entered a new phase. Economic essays continued to be written, but without specialized journals, distribution was a problem. For the most part, essay-length treatises either became privately-published pamphlets, or entries into encyclopedias (and numerous ones were intermittently cobbled together) or were snuck into the (few) existing journals of other scientific fields (statistical journals were a particular favorite).

Alternatively, they could write a book. It was around this time that the first book-length (and, more interestingly, signed) treatises in economics began to appear. The first were probably those of Sir James Steuart (1767) and Adam Smith (1776). Virtually every economist of the time -- such as Say, Ricardo and Malthus -- eventually attempted their hand at a comprehensive, book-length "treatise". While excellent in offering the author free reign in abstract theorizing, the book-length treatise was not always a good means of transmitting new ideas and generating scholarly debate. Often written as textbooks (to convince publishers of sales value), readers would have to dig through two hundred or so pages of elementary, well-known basic principles and mountains of definitions and illustrative examples, before finally reaching the theoretical "meat".

But wasn't this the time of the great British "reviews", the age of the Edinburgh Review, the Quarterly Review, the Westminster Review, etc? Indeed, but these reviews were of a different flavor than the earlier specialized journal. The reviews that emerged in Great Britain in the early 19th Century were generally mass literary and political journals. They resembled the light, news-oriented, general-topic magazine much more than the serious, focused, learned journal of the Enlightenment. Economists did write essays in the reviews, and often quite good ones, but, in general, any such essays had to be either geared to, say, a particular economic policy under debate in parliament, or mere elucidations of economic principles for general "low-brow" consumption (along the same lines as the wildly popular "textbooks" by Jane Marcet (1816) and Harriet Martineau (1834)). Except for a few notable instances, "serious", abstract economics could not generally be done in these reviews.

One should also take note of the emergence of magazines such as the weekly The Economist and the monthly Journal des ・ｽconomistes. Lighter and more journalistic than the reviews, these magazines were at least a bit more focused on issues related to political economy. Naturally, there was even less room for abstract theoretical essays in these magazines, but they were important channels by which economists could influence the general public opinion on economic policies and issues of the day.

The following is a selection of the the major periodicals of this era:

La D・ｽcade philosophique (France, 1794-?)

• Decade phil. Journal of the idéologues, edited by Jean-Baptiste Say.

Journal des d・ｽbats (1789-1842)*#

• J de Debats. Light, politically-oriented French magazine with a liberal bent.

Journal d'économie publique, de morale et de politique (France, 1796-?)*

• Although semi-focused on economic matters, it was lighter and more "news-like" than the earlier journals.

Annales de statistique, ou Journal d'・ｽconomie politique, industrielle et commerciale, de géographie, d'histoire naturelle, d'agriculture, de physique, d'hygi・ｽne et de littérature (France, 1801-?)#

• Partly archived online at Gallica. Later renamed Archives statistiques de la France.

Edinburgh Review (Britain, 1809-1929)#

• Edinburgh Rev. Whig review, published quarterly. It was the most prominent and widely-circulating of the great reviews. Its creation was inspired by the (waning) Scottish Enlightenment and served as a political and literary review. The Bullionist debates of the 1810s were conducted in part here. The economics editor in the early years was James R. McCulloch, who used the review to promote the doctrines of the Classical Ricardian School. Also the major outlet of the pundit T.B. Macaulay.

Quarterly Review (Britain 1809-1929)#

• Quarterly Rev. Tory review, published quarterly, founded by John Murray. Bizarrely, the poet Robert Southey was one of the main editors on economic affairs.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (Britain, 1817-1980)*#

• Blackwoods. Light, politically-oriented Tory magazine (published monthly) with more local Scottish orientation, more literature and even more conservative than the Quarterly Review on economic policy. (some of it archived online)

Revue Encyclop・ｽdique (France, 1819-1835)#

• Rev Encycl. Before becoming Saint-Simonian, this was a major outlet for French liberal economists

Westminster Review (Britain, 1828-1914)#

• Westminster Rev. The utilitarian review, published quarterly. founded by James Mill and Jeremy Bentham. More political and less literary than its competitors. Quite more serious about its "mission".

The Spectator (Britain, 1828-)*#

• Whiggish weekly magazine.

Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country (Britain, 1830-)*#

• Fraser's Mag. Tory weekly magazine. The scene of a bitter spat in 1849 between Thomas Carlyle and John Stuart Mill on the question of slavery and the role of political economy. Carlyle's Sartor Resartus was first published here.

Proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (Britain, 1833-)

• Proc BAAS. In 1833, economists joined Section F of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (founded 1830). They were threatened with expulsion in the 1860s and 1870s, but survived.

Journal of the (Royal) Statistical Society of London (Britain, 1838-)#

• J of SSL and JRSS. Probably the first serious English-language scientific journal. The Statistical Society of London was founded by the Section F members of the BAAS (e.g. Malthus and Jones). It was open to contributions from economists and became, for an unjustifiably long time, one of their very few high-level outlets.

Bulletin of Manchester Statistical Society (Britain, 1833-)#

• Bull of MSS. Played the same role for economists as the JRSS. Jevons published much here.

Journal des économistes (France, 1841-1940)*

• JdE. Bastion of the French Liberal School. This highly-influential journal was founded by Gilbert-Urbain Guillaumin, owner of a publishing house and head of the Sociét・ｽEd'・ｽconomie politique. The JdE can be seen as the French equivalent of The Economist of London, although its articles were a bit more high-brow. The dogmatic editorial policies of the JdE and its fraternal journals ensured that many alternative economic views -- notably those of the French syndicalist-socialist economists -- would not find an outlet in France.

New York Daily Tribune (U.S., 1841-1924)

• OK, so not a journal but a left-wing daily newspaper. Nonetheless important for history of economics: Karl Marx was a correspondent from 1851 to 1862.

Punch Magazine (Britain, 1841-)*#

• Punch. Famous British magazine which pioneered the use of cartoons and satire for political purposes. Although the height of its influence was in the Victorian era, it still exists today.

Rheinische Zeitung f・ｽE Politik, Handel und Gewerbe (Germany, 1842-1843)

• Rhein Zeit. Anti-Prussian, Cologne-based daily left-wing newspaper, edited by Karl Marx. Suppressed by Prussian authorities.

The Economist (Britain, 1843-)*

• Weekly newspaper founded by Manchester School liberals to promote repeal of Corn Laws; edited for a long time by Walter Bagehot. It remains perhaps the best weekly news-magazine in the world today.

New Englander and Yale Review (U.S., 1843-)*#

• NEYRev. Today known simply as the Yale Review, a literary journal. In its earlier years, it was a more generally oriented, and many American economists (e.g. J.B. Clark) contributed to it. 19th Century issues are partly archived online.

Libre-・ｽchange (France, 1846-?)*

• Liberal weekly journal founded by Fr・ｽdéric Bastiat.

Neue Rheinische Zeitung: Organ f・ｽE demokratie (Germany, 1848-1849)

• Neue Rhein Zeit. Attempted resurrection of Rheinische Zeitung by Marx. Suppressed again..

Emergence of Academic Economics Journals (c.1850-c.1915)

The specialized, scholarly journals we are familiar with today emerged around mid-century in Central Europe. The serious research traditions and early academic professionalization in Continental European universities required a serious outlet -- and this generated the resurrection of the scholarly journal.

The Anglo-American universities, which still seemed like "young gentlemen finishing schools" during much of this period , caught up much more slowly. However, nearing the turn of the century, there emerged a series of "new" research universities along Continental lines, such as Johns Hopkins, Chicago, M.I.T. and the L.S.E.. The research needs and the competitive spirit of these fledgling institutions encouraged the exploration of various avenues by which to make their institutional mark on the academic landscape. At every step, their efforts were copied by the older universities such as Cambridge, Harvard and Yale who were eager not to be left behind and, in the process, reinvented themselves as research schools. Creating professional associations and launching journals was a quick way of raising the profile of a university and stamping it as a "serious" research institution. Hosting a journal is always good way to attract attention, but what is even better is that by controlling the editorship of the house journal, the universities simultaneously ensured that their own faculty's publication lists will climb a lot faster than those of others.

The incentive to establish journals in economics was even greater than for other fields: recall that the status of economics as a serious, "scientific" subject was in grave doubt in the 1860s and 1870s, thus anything that could be done to "legitimize" it professionally was encouraged. Thus, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the American Economic Association, the Royal Economic Society, the Journal of Political Economy, etc. were all clear attempts by professional academic economists to not only raise the profiles of their universities on a national scale, but also that of their departments within the university.

Also worth mentioning was the rise of the left-wing economics magazine during this period. As labor movements, cooperatives and more radical socialist movements emerged, they found themselves uniformly opposed by the conventional reviews and magazines. They thus created their own -- not only to influence wider public opinion, but also to raise the political and economic consciousness of the working classes they claimed to represent. Most of these did not last long -- usually for lack of funds and/or political suppression. But a handful of ones -- particular those associated with established parties (e.g. Labour in Britain) -- managed to survive into the next era.

The following economics periodicals were begun in this period:

Zeitschrift für die gesamte staatswissenschaft (Germany, 1844-)

• ZGS. The first scholarly economics journal, founded by the University of T・ｽEingen. Now known as the Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE)

Bulletin de la Sociét・ｽEd'・ｽconomie politique (France,1846-)

• Bull SEP. Perhaps the first economics journal published by a professional association (that of the French Liberal School). Partly (1888-1916) archived online at Gallica.

De Economist ((Netherlands, 1852-)

• De Econ. Journal published by the Royal Netherlands Economic Association.

The Atlantic Monthly (U.S., 1857-)*#

• Atlantic. Popular American magazine of opinion with occasional reflective essays on matters of economic policy. 19th Century issues archived online.

Macmillan's Magazine (Britain, 1859-?)

Jahrbücher für nationalökonomie und statistik (German, 1863-)

• JNS.

Fortnightly Review (Britain, 1865-1954 )*#

• Fortnightly Rev. Folded into the Contemporary Review in 1955.

Contemporary Review (Britain, 1866- )*#

• Contemp Rev. Absorbed the Fortnightly Review in 1955.

Jahrbuch f・ｽE Verwaltung und Rechtspflege des Deutschen Reichs (Germany, 1871-)

• JfVRDR. Founded by Gustav Schmoller as an attempt at a serious but widely-read journal that would promote the social vision of the Verein f・ｽE sozialpolitik. Although very influential in German policy circles, its social mission did not work out as intended and became a regular academic journal, publishing works in the German Historicist tradition. Later known as Schmollers Jahrbuch and now known as the Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften (ZfWS).

L'Économiste français (1873 -1937)*

• Econ franc. Merged into Revue économique et financière, 1937-1940

Giornale degli Economisti (Italy, 1875-)

• GdE. Published by the University Bocconi of Milan. For a long time, the only journal that accepted overtly "mathematical" articles. Main outlet for the Lausanne School.

Mind (Britain, 1876-)#

• Philosophy journal favored by Cambridge Marshallian economists when they were in a philosophical mood.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (U.S., 1877-)#

• Proc NAS. Highly prestigious outlet for the announcement and summary of major findings in the sciences in general. The underlying, full-length papers are usually published elsewhere.

La r・ｽforme sociale, (France, 1881-1930)

• Reforme Soc. Journal published by the Sociét・ｽEd'・ｽconomie sociale. Later became Revue d'・ｽconomie sociale et rurale. Partly archived online at Gallica

Die Neue Zeit: Revue des geistigen und ・ｽffentlichen Lebens (Germany, 1883-1923)

• Stuttgart-based economics magazine founded by Karl Kautsky and served as an organ of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party. The main journal outlet for the early Marxian School -- and where much of the "revisionist" debate was fought. 1892-93 archived online at Gallica

Annuaire de l'économie politique et de la statistique (France, 1884-1899)

The Commonweal (Britain, 1885-1895)*#

• Radical Socialist monthly review.

Quarterly Journal of Economics (U.S., 1886-)

• QJE. The first English-language economics journal, run by Harvard University faculty. In its early years, it was run by Frank Taussig. It served as an outlet for his brand of Marshallian economics and the "orthodox middle" between differently-slanted AER and JPE. At least up until World War II, the QJE was probably the most prestigious American journal.

Political Science Quarterly (U.S., 1886-)#

• PSQ. Popular journal of political affairs, published by the Columbia-centered Academy of Political Science (founded 1880).

Revue d'économie politique (France, 1887-)

• REP. Major economics journal founded by Charles Gide (with the encouragement of Léon Walras) as a counter-weight to the liberal Journal des ・ｽconomistes. The eclectic REP offered a haven for all sorts of approaches, including those of French syndicalist-socialists and the Lausanne School. Under Gide's long and judicious editorship (he retired only in 1932), the REP became France's most prestigious economics journal. Partly archived online at Gallica

Statsøkonomisk tidsskrift (Norway, 1887-)

Journal of American Statistical Association (U.S.,1888-)

• JASA. Exactly what it says it is. Served as the outlet for the more quantitatively-inclined articles of contemporary economists.

Economic Journal (Britain, 1891-)

• EJ. Journal of the Royal Economic Society (founded 1890). The EJ was for a long time the only serious quality British economic journal. The EJ's first editor, Francis Ysidro Edgeworth presided from its founding in 1891 until 1911, when the editorship passed on to John Maynard Keynes (Edgeworth returned as joint editor later to help out the busy Keynes). Control of the EJ was critical for Alfred Marshall, who was intent on extending the influence of Cambrige Neoclassicism through it. Marshall's instructions on editorial policy -- keep out the math, keep out the historians, etc. -- ensured its lop-sidedness and eventual decline in quality after its first sparkling decade. For a while, only the brilliant book reviews and articles by Edgeworth and Pigou kept the journal alive. However, after Keynes took over, the quality of the contributions improved considerably, if only for the controversies that raged on its pages in the 1920s and 1930s -- e.g. the Sraffa returns-to-scale debate, the Keynes-Hayek battle, the imperfect competition revolution, the Keynes-Stockholm debate, etc.

Economic Review (Britain, 1891-1914)

• Econ Rev. For the early period, EJ's only rival in Britain -- but of much inferior and unbalanced quality. Published by Oxford's Christian Social Union.

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences (U.S., 1890-)#

• Annals AAPSS.

The Clarion (Britain, 1891-1931)*#

• Weekly Socialist magazine.

Journal of Political Economy (U.S., 1892-)

• JPE. Journal edited by the University of Chicago faculty, thus being the principal mouthpiece of the Chicago School. In the 1920s, Frank H. Knight began to use it as a pulpit for militant Neoclassical theory, in juxtaposition to the militant Institutionalism in the AER (the partisan shouting between these journals helped the QJE slip through the middle and become the "establishment" journal). In the post-war era, the JPE was the launchpad for the Monetarists and, later, the New Classical counter-revolution in macroeconomics, and the residence of much of the Chicago School's microeconomics programme.

Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft und Sozialpolitik (Austria, 1892-)

• ZfVS.

Dictionary of Political Economy (Britain, 1894-99)

• Not a journal, of course. R.H. Inglis Palgrave, ex-editor of the Economist, put together this encyclopedic dictionary. Numerous economists used the opportunity to publish essay-length articles.

Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift för politik-statistik-ekonomik (Sweden, 1897-?)

Ekonomisk Tidskrift (Sweden,1899-).

• Ekon Tidsk. Founded by David Davidson, it eventually became the principal outlet for the Stockholm School. Renamed the Swedish and then Scandanavian Journal of Economics.

Biometrika (Britain, 1901-)#

Revue économique internationale (Belgium, 1904-1940)

• Rev Econ Int. Journal founded and backed by a consortium of French-Belgian industrial and financial concerns (e.g. Sociét・ｽEGenerale), which became the major organ of the French historical school -- particularly of ・ｽmile Levasseur and its more corporatist wing. The integrity of its articles was suspect -- their content was noticeably influenced by the journal's owners.

Proceedings of the American Political Science Association (U.S., 1904-, then American Political Science Review, 1913-)#

• Proc APSA. Exactly what is says it is. Early economists (particularly of the Institutionalist vein) often contributed to it.

The Nation (Britain, 1907-1931)*#

• Initially a Liberal, then Labour weekly magazine. In 1921, it merged with the older literary journal, the Athenaeum (founded 1822). The resulting Nation and Athenaeum was then bought in 1923 by a group headed by John Maynard Keynes. Subsequently, Keynes used the journal as a platform for his own criticisms of the government economic policy. In 1931, the Nation and Athenaeum was absorbed by the New Statesman.

Revue d'histoire économique et sociale (France, 1908-)

• RdHES. French economics history journal, founded by Auguste Deschamps and Auguste Dubois. Later renamed Histoire, ・ｽconomie et sociét・ｽE/i> Partly archived online at Gallica.