Text Resize
-A A +A

Economics: A Resource Guide

Economics is the study of how people interact with each other and with their natural surroundings in producing their livelihoods, and how this changes over time, given scarce resources. Modern Economics, like many other social science disciplines, started taking shape against the backdrop of the industrial revolution, during the second half of the 18th century. Adam Smith is generally considered to be the father of this discipline who, in 1776, published his magnum opus “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, almost two and half centuries ago. Over the period, the discipline has emerged immensely. This guide is prepared to help navigate the vast expanse of resources available, especially for students and early career researchers. Economics is studied in broadly three strands:

  1. Microeconomics is the study of how individuals (people, households, firms, and organization) make economic decisions in their day-to-day lives. It broadly include three topics: consumption decisions (consumer theory), production decisions (production theory), and strategic interaction (game theory).
  2. Macroeconomics studies the economy as a whole. The most important topics it deals with are: economic growth, unemployment, inflation, trade, exchange rates, and monetary and fiscal policies. This way of looking at the economy as a whole emerged during the great depression (during the 1930s) through the works of J. M. Keynes.
  3. Econometrics is the application of statistical methods in analyzing economic questions. With the accessibility of personal computers, it started becoming feasible to use available data to gain deeper insights into economic phenomenon, both microeconomic and macroeconomic. A typical tool used by the Econometricians is the Regression analysis.

In addition, there are many sub-disciplines of Economics. These include: Development Economics, Financial Economics, Business Economics, Labour Economics, Behavioral Economics, Health Economics, Energy Economics, Environmental Economics, Public Economics, Law & Economics, Economic History, among many others.

This resource guide, prepared by the library staff aims to list useful sources of information on the subject that are available in JGU Library and elsewhere, both in print and electronic forms. It also includes important links to useful free & open access web resources. Besides, the resources guide also include resources of interest to those who teach Economics.

 

Contact Info

 

Sanjay Jha
Assistant Director
Send Email 
Feedback  

 

Books, eBooks and Videos on Economics in JGU Library

Global Library holds a number of print books, E-books and Videos. Books on Economics and related subjects can be found in the library in the following shelf sequences:

Call Numbers

Subjects

304.6

Demography

330

Economics

330.954

Economic History and Conditions

332.2

Finance.  Money, Banking, Credit. Foreign Exchange

336

Public Finance, Local Finance

340

Economics and Law

343.52

Income & expenditure. Revenue. Taxation

346.86

Insurance

381.142

E-Commerce

658.15

Corporate Finance, Financial Management, Stocks

In addition, the following resources may be useful:

The majority of the Books, e-Books and videos held/subscribed by the Library can be discovered using the online library catalogue: http://koha.jgu.edu.in

A ready-to-use list of books  in the JGU Library on Economics is available here  : Books on Economics

A ready-to-use list of Videos in the JGU Library on Economics is available here :  Videos on Economics

E-books can also be accessed through the following general resources: E-Books collection of EBSCO Host

Individually acquired e-books through different eBooks database collection  are hosted on JGU's library website : https://library.jgu.edu.in/content/e-books

CORE’s economics textbook can be accesses here: https://www.core-econ.org/the-economy/index.html

To access updated major reference collection on Economics, visit shelves (Central Library).  Some reference collection on this subject is, as follow:

Reference works, secondary and tertiary sources are the starting point to begin your research. Some major reference works on Economics are listed below. Links to the JGU library catalogue have been provided with the sources that are available in the library.

 

Top Economics Journals

In order to communicate to a wider audience, researchers often publish their research in academic journals. There are hundreds of such journals in economics. Below is a list of a few top-rated peer-reviewed journals in the field of Economics: (Source Scimango Institutions Rank Year 2022)

No

Journal Name

Publisher

Subject Area and Category

 ISSN

H-Index

Website

1

American Economic Review

American Economic Association

Economics and    Econometrics

28282

312

https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/aer

 

2

Quarterly Journal of Economics

Oxford University Press

Economics and Econometrics

00335533, 15314650

272

https://academic.oup.com/qje

 

3

Econometrica

 

Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Economics and Econometrics

 

205

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14680262

 

4

Journal of Political Economy

University of Chicago

Economics and Econometrics

00223808, 1537534X

197

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/jpe/current

 

5

Journal of Economic Literature

American Economic Association

Economics and Econometrics

220515

164

https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/jel

 

6

Review of Economic studies

Oxford University Press

Economics and Econometrics

00346527, 1467937X

148

https://academic.oup.com/restud

 

7

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics

 

American Economic Association

Economics, Econometrics and Finance

19457790, 19457782

91

https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/app

 

Apart from these very selective listings, there are numerous other economics journals available. For a list of selected journals, see the following:

For Indian journals based in Indian institutions, please visit our Indian Research link.

Research Article database (Bibliographic database)

Google Scholar: It is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines (including Economics).

IDEAS/ RePEc: This is the largest bibliographic database dedicated to Economics and freely accessible on the Internet. Based on research papers in Economics (RePEc), it indexes over 4 million research items.

SSRN: Social Science Research Network is a repository for preprints, including abstracts, devoted to the rapid dissemination of scholarly research in the social sciences. Academic papers can be uploaded directly to the SSRN site by authors, and are made available for download. Even if access to the published paper is restricted, access to the original working paper remains open, so long as the author decides to keep the paper up.

J-Gate: It is a bibliographic database, founded in 2001, to access global e-journal literature. It contains abstracts, citations, full-text access for all Open Access journals and other key details from academic journals. Global Library is subscribing to this database.

EBSCO’s Business Source premier: It is one of the most used business and economics research databases which is superior to the competition in full text coverage in all disciplines of business, including Management, MIS, POM, Accounting, Finance, and Economics. This database is updated daily by EBSCO. Global Library has subscriptions to this database.

JSTOR: It is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of journals in the humanities and social sciences. Global Library has subscriptions to this database.

Project MUSE: It provides a comprehensive collection of humanities, economics and social sciences journals. Sole source of complete full-text versions of titles from many scholarly societies and the university press. Global Library has a subscription to this database.

EconLit: It is an academic literature abstracting database service published by the American Economic Association (AEA). The service focuses on literature in the field of economics. It covers articles and other materials dating back to 1969. It uses the JEL classification codes for classifying papers by subject. Currently, Global Library does not have a subscription for this database.

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU): It is a British business within the Economist Group providing forecasting and advisory services through research and analysis, such as monthly country reports, five-year country economic forecasts, country risk service reports, and industry reports. Currently, Global Library does not have a subscription for this database.

EconBiz: It is an academic search portal for journals, working papers, and conferences in business studies and economics. It is provided by the ZBW - German National Library of Economics, Leibniz Information Centre for Economics. The portal was started in 2002 as the Virtual Library for Economics and Business Studies. Currently, Global Library does not have a subscription for this database.

ABI Inform Complete: This database features thousands of full-text journals, dissertations, working papers, key business and economics periodicals such as the Economist, country-and industry-focused reports, dissertations and downloadable data. Currently, Global Library does not have a subscription for this database.

Knowledge@Wharton: This network offers free access to: a) Analysis of current business trends, b) Interviews with industry leaders and Wharton faculty c) Articles based on the most recent business research, d) Conference overviews, book reviews and links to relevant content e) Searchable database of more than 6,300 articles and research abstracts.

Econpapers: It is a good collection of working papers in the area of economics.

A-Z Journals List: Global Library has initially revamped A-Z journals list alphabetically and update this list quarterly. You can access particular journal alphabetically, following A-Z links.

Also, click here to access a number of journal databases subscribed by Global Library which consist numerous journals, research paper on Economics through EBSCO Business Source PrimerJSTOR , J-Gate, EBSCO’s Business Source premier and other subscribed database.

Popular News Sources, Global Data Sources and Statistical software

Popular News Sources

The Economist: The Economist is an English-language weekly magazine-format newspaper owned by the Economist Group and edited at offices in London, Continuous publication began under its founder James Wilson in September 1843. The Economist takes an editorial stance of classical and economic liberalism that supports free trade, globalization, free immigration and cultural liberalism. Global Library has subscription to this e-resource.

Lexis Uni  This is an aggregator of current newspapers, magazines, and journals, including a vast data set of Company Dossier. It covers different national and international newspapers; it also covers many prominent journals and a vast dataset of Company Dossier. It has many major newspapers and magazines, like Business Line, Business Standard, Economic and Political Weekly, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Haretz, Indian Express, New Indian Express, South China Morning Post, The Economics Time, The Economist, The Guardian, The Hindu, The Times of India, Bar &  Bench, Mint and many more. Global Library has a subscription to this e-resource.

Financial Times: It is an English-language international daily newspaper headquartered in London, with emphasis on business and economic news.

Wall Street Journal: The Wall Street Journal, an international daily newspaper based on New York City is published six days a week. Global Library has subscription to this e-resource.

New York Times The NYT is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851. We can search with title name for the known old articles on the search portal. Some articles are available dating back to 1851. Articles from 1851-1980 are available either in full-text or partial articles. Full-text articles are available for all content post-1980. Global Library has a limited user license for this e-resource.

Bloomberg : This daily, online report offers the latest national and international headlines, current market data and personal finance advice.

Fortune : Publisher of the Fortune 500, readers will find business and economic news with analysis of global business drivers.

Forbes: Forbes is a leading, reliable source for business, financial, economic, and political news.

Economic & Political Weekly (EPW): EPW has been one of the chroniclers of Modern India. It was founded by Sachin Chaudhuri in 1949, just after India’s independence. Many of the political and economic debates in India have been fought on the pages of EPW. Global Library has a subscription to this e-resource

For popular Indian Economics sources, please visit our Indian economy research link.

Global Data Sources

World Bank data: This free and open access database maintained by the World Bank is a great source for a variety of variables to gauge the development status of various countries of the world.  The topics covered in the WDI range from poverty, health, and demographics to GDP, trade, and the environment.

IMF databank: It is maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It curates important macroeconomic variables. It has an open access.

HDI database: It contains the data employed in development of Human Development Indexes (HDI), maintained by UNDP. It has an open access.

World Inequality Database: It provides open and convenient access to the most extensive available database on the historical evolution of the world distribution of income and wealth, both within countries and between countries. It has an open access.

UN Comtrade database: It is compiled by the UN Statistics division covering approximately 200 countries and represents more than 99% of the world's merchandise trade. It aggregates detailed global annual and monthly trade statistics by product and trading partner. It has an open access, as well as certain services are based on subscription.

UNIDO data: It is maintained by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). It covers data related to industrial development of most countries. It has an open access.

Bloomberg: (Subscription required) It is a computer software system that enables professionals in the financial service sector and other industries to access Bloomberg Professional Services through which users can monitor and analyze real-time financial market data and place trades on the electronic trading platform. Currently, Global Library doesn’t have its subscription.

CEIC database: (Subscription required) It provides an expansive macroeconomic data for both developed and developing countries. Currently, Global Library doesn’t have its subscription.

For Indian databases, please visit our Indian economy research link.

Statistical software (for Economic data analysis)

Given the importance of statistical analysis, Economists use a variety of statistical software. Below is a list of most popular statistical software which are often used by the researchers.

  1. MS Excel: It suffices for basic descriptive (and visual) analysis of traditional datasets.
  2. Stata: It is, arguably, the most popular statistical analysis tool used by academic economists. It keeps itself up to date with the launch of new packages and programs. An important limitation of Stata is that it is not free. Global Library has a subscription to this database.
  3. R (and R-Studio): It has been gaining prominence with the preference for open access over past couple of decades. Free access is one of its many great virtues.
  4. Python: It has emerged as the tool of choice for Machine Learning algorithms. It is freely accessible.
  5. MATLAB: It is named as an abbreviation of "MATrix LABoratory". It has its followers among Engineering and Sciences, and has been gaining hold among Economists in recent times. It is a proprietary software, managed by Math Works.
  6. Octave: It is programming language very similar to MATLAB. It has an open access.
  7. IBM SPSS & Amos Statistics database : The software name originally stood for Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) & Amos. The many features of SPSS Statistics are accessible via pull-down menus. Global library has license for 30 users and Amos 10 on network license.
  8. SAS: It is a paid software developed by SAS Institute for data management, advanced analytics, multivariate analysis, business intelligence, criminal investigation, and predictive analytics.
  9. Isee STELLA Systems: It is a simulation and modeling tool. Global Library has its subscription.
  10. NVivo 12 PlusThis is designed specifically to support deep levels of data analysis, helping you to achieve better research outcomes.  Have a place to organize, store and retrieve your data so you can work more efficiently, save time and rigorously back up findings with evidence. Import data from virtually any source – text, audio, video, emails, images, spreadsheets, online surveys, social and web content and more. Global Library has limited user subscriptions for this database.
  11. CMIE's - Consumer Pyramidsdx: The Consumer Pyramids Household Survey is India’s largest regular household survey covering 178,000+ households. CPHS is also known as the world’s largest household panel survey. It has collected data on over 236,000 households and 1.19+ million individuals surveyed since 2014. The survey collects information on household demographics, individual identities, employment, health status, financial inclusion, individual and household incomes, consumption expenditures, ownership of assets and intentions to buy them, household amenities, and consumer sentiments. Income and expenses data are a monthly time series since January 2014. The data from this survey is disseminated through Consumer Pyramidsdx." The data in this dataset are useful for the researcher who is working in the study of micro-level household conditions of the Indian society. Global Library has a subscription to this database.
  12. CMIE's - Economic Outlook: Economic Outlook provides CMIE's view on where the Indian economy stands and where it is likely headed. Economic Outlook provides macroeconomic forecasts on growth and insights into Real-time analysis on inflation, fiscal balance, the balance of payments, corporate earnings and a host of other indicators. It discusses the future and explains its forecasts by analyzing the data collected by CMIE. Global Library has a subscription to this database.
  13. CMIE's - ProwessIQ: ProwessIQ is one of the most reliable corporate database which provides detailed Information on more than 27000 Indian financial companies. It includes a normalized database of the financials covering 3500 data items and ratios per company. It provides quantitative information on production, sales, consumption of raw materials and energy, useful contact information, share holing patterns etc. It includes all the NSE and BSE traded companies along with unlisted public limited and private limited companies. Such information is usually available for over ten years. Global Library has a subscription to this database.
  14. CMIE's - ProwessDX: ProwessDX is a database of the financial performance of companies. Annual Reports of companies, stock exchanges, and regulators are the principal sources of the data. Prowessdx is a delivery of the Prowess database that is specially designed for academia. Prowessdx facilitates easy downloading of the data in simple text format. The database covers the profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and ratios based on these. The listed companies include cash flow statements, quarterly financial statements, share prices, corporate action, and total daily returns. Financial information based on a consolidated and standalone basis is available. Financial statements are standardized. The database does not suffer from any deliberate survival bias. Prowessdx delivers data for about 35,000 Indian companies. Prowess DX includes listed companies, unlisted public companies, and private companies of all sizes and ownership groups. It contains time-series data since 1990. Global Library has a subscription to this database.

India has a very rich history of studies related to economics. The first treatise on the subject, Arthashastra, is generally believed to be written as late as third century B.C. It is a treatise on statecraft, political science, economic policy and military strategy. Lost in oblivion, it was rediscovered in early twentieth century. It is believed to be authored by Chanakya, the mastermind behind the Mauryan Empire, the first Indian empire.

One of the first scholars of studies on Indian economy was Dadabhai Naoroji, who pioneered research on poverty and living standards in the wake of British colonialism in India. His ‘drain theory’ provided one of the first debating ammunition to the first phase of Indian independence struggle, the ‘Economic Nationalism’ phase (1885-1905).

Post-independence, Economists have played a crucial role in Indian policy making, most notably through the planning commission, which was succeeded by of NITI aayog in 2014. The National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO), spearheaded by P.C. Mahalanobis, was the pioneering organization in scientific sample surveys across the globe. Data collected by these surveys led to a lively debate on Indian poverty. India’s Population Census, started in 1870s, is one of the oldest continuing censuses. India also boasts of its very rich agricultural data collection and research.

India boasts of a thriving Economics debating culture backed by data, which is often lacking among other developing countries. The economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s accelerated this. In this section, we provide resources related to research in India in the field on Economics.

Data Sources:
India has been a pioneer in the collection of data to aid in policy making. Following is a list of the most used data by Indian economists.

National Sample Surveys (NSS) data: India has been a pioneer in the field on scientific sampling. It has been conducting surveys on various socio-economic aspects of Indian population since 1951. Two of its most important surveys were Consumption Expenditure Surveys (CES) and Employment & Unemployment Surveys (EUS). The last time these two surveys were conducted was in 2011-12. The EUS has since then been replaced by the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). The CES survey has not been conducted since 2011-12.
Additionally, NSS surveys include about a dozen more surveys including: Situation Assessment Surveys (SAS), Debt & Investment Surveys, Health & Education Surveys, enterprises surveys, land & livestock surveys, services sector surveys, migration survey, tourism survey, among various other surveys.

Population Census: It started in 1872, by then ruling British government, as an exercise to understand India’s ‘land and its people’. It was conducted once in ten years (1872, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911, 1931, and 1941). Post-independence this has been in continued existence. It has been conducted by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (ORI), under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The latest census was conducted in 2011. The 2021 census has been delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) The ASI constitutes a comprehensive set of data on the industrial sector in India. The data are supplied by a single and unified survey of production units. It is the most important source of industrial statistics of the registered manufacturing sector of the economy. ASI has been collecting data annually since 1960.

National Family Health Survey (NFHS) NFHS is an India-wide survey conducted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) with International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) serving as the nodal agency. The main objective of the survey was to collect reliable and up-to-date information on fertility, family planning, mortality, maternal, and child health. Five rounds have been conducted so far: 1992-93, 1998-99, 2005-06, 2015-16, and 2019-21.

Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS). It is a nationally representative, multi-topic survey, conducted by researchers from University of Maryland, and NCAER. Two rounds of surveys have been conducted so far: 2005 and 2012.

Prowess database: Prowess is a database of the financials of Indian companies, maintained by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). Annual Reports of companies is the most important source of this database. For listed companies, the Prowess database contains additional data sourced from the stock exchanges. It provides time-series data beginning 1989-90. 

Consumer Pyramid Household Survey (CPHS). It is India's largest panel survey of households (Sample size over 1.5 lakh), maintained by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The full sample is surveyed in waves lasting 4 months each. This is a continuous household survey since January 2014, about two dozen since. CPHS collects data on household member details such as age, gender, religion, caste, education, occupation, employment status, financial inclusion and income. For the household as a whole it collects data on household income, consumption expenditure, amenities and ownership of assets. The anonymised unit level data is available. Global library has its subscription.

EPWRF- India Time Series (EPWRF-ITS): EPW Research Foundation maintains over two dozen module of aggregate data. These include: National Account Statistics (NAS), State Domestic Product (SDP), price indexes, Agricultural Statistics, Annual Survey of Industries, Budget (Indian & State governments), and Banking data, among many others. Most of these data is publically available, but it provides cleaned data in consistent and user friendly CSV/Excel format. Global Library has its subscription.

RBI’s database on Indian Economy: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) maintains a variety of data related to the Indian economy. It is the primary source for policy rates, various time series indicators, among others.

SHRUG database:  The Socioeconomic High-resolution Rural-Urban Geographic Platform for India (SHRUG) is a geographic platform that facilitates data sharing between researchers working on India. It is maintained by Data Development Lab (DDL). It is an open access repository currently comprising dozens of datasets, including cleaned unit level datasets. These include: Population Census (1991, 2001, and 2011), Economic Census (1990 to 2013), Forest cover, Night Lights (1994-2013). PMGSY, Elections data, and Bank branch location data.

Election Commission of India (ECI): ECI is the primary source of all data related to state and general elections in India since 1950.

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB): It is an Indian government agency responsible for collecting and analyzing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and Local Laws (SLL). NCRB is headquartered in New Delhi and is part of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). NCRB was set-up in 1986 to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as to assist the investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators. These data are in the form of three annual reports: ‘Crime in India’, ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India’ and ‘Prison Statistics’.

Indiastat: It house many data tables and e-resource on socio-economic statistical information of India divided into many modules. Many of its tables are drawn from the parliamentary questions. Global library not subscribing this statistical database at present.

ICSSR data service: It is the culmination of signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). The MoU provides for setting-up of “ICSSR Data Service: Social Science Data Repository” and host NSS and ASI datasets generated by MoSPI. ICSSR Data Service aims to facilitate data sharing, preservation, accessibility and reuse of social science research data collected from entire social science community in India & abroad.

Indian Journals in Economics

Economic and Political Weekly (EPW): EPW is among the most prestigious scholarly journals in India having had contributions from many of the country's best known scholars, and foreign scholars working on Indian issues. It is a weekly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all social sciences, and is published by the Sameeksha Trust. The journal was established in 1949 as Economic Weekly and edited by Sachin Chaudhuri. It obtained its current name in 1966. It was edited by Krishna Raj for more than three decades. Gopal Guru is the current editor.

Indian Economic Review (IER): It is the journal of the Delhi School of Economics. Founded in 1952, IER is a general economics journal. It provides a platform for dissemination of innovative research in economics that employs theoretical and empirical approaches. It has over the years featured the work of leading economists including Nobel laureates on a wide range of topics in economics. (Published by Springer since 2017).

Journal of Quantitative Economics (JQEC): It was established in 1983 as the official journal of The Indian Econometric Society (TIES) to promote research in the broad areas of Econometrics and Mathematical Economics. JQEC covers economic theory and theoretical and applied econometrics, with special focus on quantitative applications to less developed countries. (Published by Springer)

Indian Journal of Human Development (IJHD): It is a multi-disciplinary, peer-reviewed journal that focuses on both theoretical and empirical research and provides an open platform for critical engagement with human development discourses. The Journal includes scholarly essays, research notes, commentaries, perspectives and book reviews, besides information on events and statistics relating to human development. It welcomes expressions of all shades and opinions. (Published by Sage).

Artha Vijnana: It is a quarterly journal of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. Founded in 1959, it publishes original articles in Economics and other social sciences. The journal is expected to go online from this year.

Journal of Social and Economic Development (JSED): It is the official journal of the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru. It is published twice a year and focuses on critical issues affecting the transformation of the economy, polity and society. The Journal is open to both original research articles as well as scholarly review papers. (Published by Springer)

Indian Journal of Labour Economics (IJLE). IJLE publishes research in the field of labour economics both on the microeconomic and on the macroeconomic level. It is published by Indian Society for Labour Economics (ISLE) is association with Springer.

RBI Occasional Papers (RBIOP): It is the official research journal of the RBI, which provides a forum for publication of research work done by the RBI Staff, independently and/or in collaboration with independent researchers outside the Bank. The journal is published bi-annually, both in print and online form, as an open-access journal on the Bank’s website.

Journal of Emerging Market Finance (JEMF) is a forum for debate and discussion on the theory and practice of finance in emerging markets. While the emphasis is on articles that are of practical significance, the journal also covers theoretical and conceptual aspects relating to emerging financial markets. The journal was established in 2002 and is published by SAGE Publications. It’s editor-in-chief is G. Balasubramanian, IFMR. (Published by Sage).

MARGIN: The Journal of Applied Economic Research (JAER): It is a quarterly, peer-reviewed, international journal published by NCAER in New Delhi.  The journal publishes papers that pay special attention to the economics of emerging economies, but is open to high-quality papers from all fields of applied economics. (Published by Sage).

Decision: It is a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal published by the IIM, Calcutta since 1974. It has captured the evolution of management thoughts in multiple disciplines in both national and wider regional contexts for several decades. (Published by Springer since 2013).

Government institutions related to Economics

Reserve Bank of India (RBI): It is the central bank of India that manages India’s monetary policy and bank notes. It was established in 1935. It has a strong in-house research.

Indian Economic Service (IES): It is an inter-ministerial and inter-departmental central civil service (Group A). It came into existence in the 1960s for formulating and implementing economic policies and programmes in India. The Economic Survey is prepared under the supervision of IES. It comes under the Finance Ministry.

Ministry of Statistics and Planning Implementation (MoSPI): It is concerned with coverage and quality aspects of statistics released. It came into existence as an Independent Ministry in 1999 after the merger of the Department of Statistics and the Department of Programme Implementation.

NITI Aayog: It serves as the apex public policy think tank of the Government of India, and the nodal agency tasked with catalysing economic development, and fostering cooperative federalism through the involvement of State Governments of India in the economic policy-making process using a bottom-up approach. I t was established in 2015 to replace the Planning Commission.

Finance Commission (FC): The FC is periodically constituted by the President of India under Article 280 of the Indian Constitution to define the financial relations between the central government of India and the individual state governments. Fifteen Finance Commissions have been constituted so far. The fifteenth FC was constituted in 2017 and is chaired by N.K. Singh.

Conferences & Workshop (Selective):

DSE Winter School: The Centre for Development Economics, at the DSE, jointly with the Econometric Society, hold the winter school every year in the second half of December.

ISI conference: The Economics and Planning Unit (EPU) at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Delhi organizes Annual Conference on Economic Growth and Development. The 17rh edition was held in December 2022. It is generally held just after the DSE’s winter school.

TIES conference: It is an annual conference of The Indian Econometric Society (TIES). It is organized across different location in the country. It held its 57th annual conference in 2022.

ISLE conference: ISLE has been holding annual conferences regularly since its inception at various places in the country. So far 62 such annual conferences have already been organised at various places in the country.

CoRE conference IGIDR, Mumbai organizes Conversations on Research (CoRe), especially meant for PhD scholars.

Jadavpur Univ. conference: The department of Economics, Jadavpur University organizes an Annual Conference on Contemporary Issues in Development Economics (both theoretical and empirical). It is usually held in the second half of December.

Macroeconomics and Finance Conference (MFC): Since 1998, IGIDR has been hosting this conference given the importance that research on money and finance has gained in India after 1991 reforms. It is usually held in second half of December. Its 19th edition was held in 2021.

Reading India:

Economic & Political Weekly (EPW): In addition to research articles, EPW has been publishing on the contemporary social, political and economic issues of India.

Ideas for India (I4I): Ideas for India (I4I) was launched in 2012 by a group of economists. It is an economics and policy portal that publishes analysis and commentary on issues pertaining to growth and development in India. It gives economists (and other academics) in India and beyond a chance to write for non-expert readers. The portal serves as a space for economists, other social scientists, and practitioners to use their research and experience to weigh in on policy questions. It carries posts on topics covering agriculture, governance, environment, poverty and inequality, among others.

The India Forum (TIF): The India Forum is an independent online journal-magazine that seeks to widen and deepen contemporary conversations. It is called a journal-magazine because it offers serious analysis, comment and reflection on contemporary issues, but it does so in a reader-friendly magazine-like language. It is a unique digital publication that combines regular updates with a monthly publication. The website publishes a couple of new articles every Friday. A monthly issue with a set of 8-10 articles is also put out on the first Friday of every month. Most of the articles on The India Forum are specially commissioned pieces.

IndiaSpend: It began with the objective of addressing the shortage of data- and evidence-led journalism in India. Founded in 2014, it utilises open data to inform public understanding on a range of issues, with the aim of fostering better governance and more transparency and accountability in governance.

People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI): It is a multimedia digital journalism platform founded by veteran journalist P. Sainath (in 2014). PARI focuses on rural journalism and publishes stories, videos and photo stories in numerous categories, including, Farming and its Crisis, adivasis, dalits, women, healthcare, Rural-Urban, and Resource Conflicts.

Newspapers: India has a thriving culture of daily newspapers. The English language press covers various general as well as economics specific topics. Some of the newspapers covering business & economy topics are: Mint, Economic Times, Business Line, Financial Express, Business Standard, among many others.

Magazines: There are plenty of magazines devoted to Indian business and economy. These include: Business Today, Business India, Business World, Business Week, Forbes-India, Fortune-India, Outlook Business, among many others.

Miscellaneous Resources:

Econ-Buzz newsletter: It is a monthly newsletter published by IGIDR, Mumbai. It has been published since 2019.

The Seen and the Unseen (podcast by Amit Varma): It is a weekly podcast which started off looking at the unintended consequences of public policies, and then evolved into a deep-dive interview podcast. It has its focus mostly on India.

Shodhganga: It is a digital repository of doctoral (PhD) theses and dissertations submitted to universities in India. It is maintained by Information and Library Network Centre (INFLIBNET), which is an autonomous Inter-University Centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India. (Established in 2011)

Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR): It is the national body overseeing research in the social sciences in India (Established in 1969, New Delhi). It provides funding to scholars and to a network of over two dozen research institutes, often referred to collectively as ICSSR institutes.

Audio Visual Lectures & Tutorials, E-Archives, Online course materials, Working papers

Online Video Lecture and Courses

MIT OCW: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has curated a selected list of classroom video tutorials on Economics. It is a free and open collection of material from thousands of MIT courses, covering the entire MIT curriculum. (Launched in 2001)

Yale University Open Courses: It is a project of Yale University to share full video and course materials from its undergraduate courses. (Launched in 2007)

EdX: It is an American Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provider created by MIT and Harvard University. It hosts online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines to a worldwide student body, including many courses free of any charges. (Launched in 2012)

Coursera: It is a USA based MOOC provider by Stanford University computer science professors. It works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, certifications, and degrees in a variety of subjects, many of which are freely available. (Launched in 2012)

Academic Earth  It is a website launched by Richard Ludlow and co-founders Chris Bruner and Liam Pisano. It offers free online video lectures from universities such as UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Michigan, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. (Launched in 2009)

TED (and TEDx): It is a non-profit organization, acronym from Technology, Entertainment, and Design. It is devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks from experts from various fields (of about 20 minutes). It covers a vast range of topics in sciences, technology, and Social sciences, among others. (Founded in 1984)

In addition to these, there are numerous semester long Economics courses available on YouTube.

Podcasts and Blogs (related to Economics)

Podcasts and blogs have emerged as a great way of knowledge dissemination, and stay abreast of new developments. Following is a very selective list of podcasts related to economics:

EconTalk (By Russ Roberts; Library of Economics & Liberty). It is a weekly economics podcast, of about 1 hour duration. The host- a free market believer- typically interviews a single guest, often professional economists. It was started in 2006.

Planet Money (National Public Radio). It is an American podcast which comes twice weekly, each episode is roughly 15-30 minutes. It claims to be ‘The Economy Explained’ using ‘creative and entertaining’ dialogues and narrative. It was started in 2008, in the wake of the global financial crisis.

The Economist: The Week Ahead (The Economist magazine). It is a weekly show, which comes every Friday. The editors and correspondents discuss the major economic events taking place in the next week.

Slate Money (By Felix Salmon) It is a weekly roundup of the most important stories from the worlds of business and finance, hosted by Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers. It is similar to Alphachat but without all the wonkiness.

Economic Update (By Richard Wolff). This weekly program hosted by an Economics Professor, tries to break down complex economic issues of the day. It also focuses on personal financial decisions.

The Seen and the Unseen (By Amit Varma): It is a weekly podcast which started off looking at the unintended consequences of public policies, and then evolved into a deep-dive interview podcast. It has its focus mostly on India.

PhD dissertation archive

Parts of PhD and dissertations go on to be published as working papers and journal articles. However, some do not. The following resources provide access to the doctoral thesis and dissertations:

EBSCO Open Dissertations: It provides a single search interface to locate open-access theses and dissertations from hundreds of universitiesIt is a free database with records for more than 1.2 million electronic theses and dissertations from around the world.

ShodhGangotri: Under the initiative called “ShodhGangotri”, research scholars/research supervisors in universities are requested to deposit an electronic version of the approved synopsis submitted by research scholars to the universities for registering themselves for the Ph.D. programme. Now it is expanded to MRPs/PDFs/Emeritus Fellowship, etc. The repository, on one hand, would reveal the trends and directions of research being conducted in Indian universities; on the other hand, it would avoid duplication of research. The Synopsis in “ShodhGangotri” would later be mapped to full-text theses in "ShodhGanga".

ShodhGanga: It is a full-text open access digital repository of Indian theses and dissertations.

EThoS: It aims to provide a national aggregated record of all doctoral theses awarded by UK Higher Education institutions. It is free access to the full text of as many theses as possible for use by researchers. It also facilitates access to its material EThOS provides a digitization on demand service.

The University of Edinburgh Economics thesis and dissertation collection: This is collection of thesis and dissertation submitted by Scholar at University of Edinburgh

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations: An international organization promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs); supporting electronic publishing and open access to scholarship in order to enhance the sharing of knowledge worldwide.

For dissertations/ thesis from Indian institutions, please visit our Indian economy research link.

Working Papers

The process of publishing in an established journal often takes a substantial amount of time. In order to make their research public at the shortest possible time, the researcher often publish their findings in a working paper. Many of the leading institutions publishes their own series of working papers. Most of the working papers are freely accessible. Following is a selective series of working papers:

NBER Working Papers: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization, founded in 1920. Their working paper series began in 1973, which now includes about 25,000 papers. The authors are often the leading economists. Prior to being published as working paper, they are circulated for comments and discussions.

World Bank Working Papers: The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans & grants to the governments of low & middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. It was established along with the IMF at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. They host thousands of open access research papers and World Bank documents, including country reports.

IMF Working Papers: IMF is a major financial agency of the UN, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., USA. Their working papers goes back to 1997. Access is open to all internet users.

ILO Working papers: ILO houses research papers mostly related to labour and employment issues across the globe.

ADB Working Paper: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) was established in 1966 as a regional development bank. The Economics Working Papers series is a forum to understand Asian and Pacific economies better. Their working papers often focuses on development topics in Asian countries.

OECD Working papers: It houses the research papers on the economies of the economically developed countries.

In addition to these very selective list, almost all major universities, organizations and think tanks publishes their own working paper series. Please visit their websites’ publication section for accessing their working papers. For working papers by Indian universities/ think tanks, go to Indian research tab.

Zotero: It is a free and open-source reference management software to manage bibliographic data and related research materials, such as PDF files. Its features include web browser integration, online syncing, generation of in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographies, an integrated PDF reader and note editor, as well as integration with the word processors MS Word, LibreOffice Writer, and Google Docs. It works as a browser plug-in, and also has a desktop client. (Developed at George Mason University in 2006).

Mendeley: It is a reference manager tool similar to Zotero. (Developed by Elsevier in 2008).

EndNote: This software designed to collect and organize research; compatible with EndNote Web. Currently, Global Library has its license (single user license).

Overleaf: It is a collaborative cloud-based LaTeX editor used for writing, editing and publishing scientific documents. Many researchers are increasingly using it for a few specific purposes: as document editor, citation and writing draft management. It is also being used for preparing presentations slides.

Turnitin: It is an internet based anti-plagiarism detection software. Its main objective is to prevent plagiarism. Global Library has its subscription.

Survey Monkey: It is an online survey tool for data analysis, sample selection, bias elimination, and data representation. We are subscribing this online survey tool.

As with all other disciplines, conferences, and other such academic events, are an essential part of academic training. There are some excellent websites with curate the information regarding various such events that are being held across the globe. One may subscribe to their newsletter to get a periodical update. Here is a selective list:

INOMICS: This is good website for conference on the economics organized by the different institute all over the world. To get regular update on upcoming conference, you can set up an email alert.

Conference Alerts: This website provide all the updates about upcoming conference event of your interest in India and worldwide. It covers an array of topics like Business and Economics, Social Sciences & Humanities, Law, Education, Health and medicine etc. To get regular update on upcoming conference, you can set up an email alert.

All conference alerts: This website provides all the updates about upcoming conference event of your interest in India. To get regular update on upcoming conference, you can set up an email alert.

Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET): The Institute for New Economic thinking award is aimed at finding solutions for the world’s most pressing economic problems. In general, the Institute awards grants ranging in value from $25,000-$250,000 for projects of one to three years’ duration.

Agency for International Development (USAID): Supports research that is intended to produce knowledge that will offer solutions to specific development challenges including broad-based economic growth; environment; population, health and nutrition; democracy; and providing humanitarian assistance and aiding post-crisis transitions.

American Economic Association Funding & Grants: The AEAWEB provides information on funding for economists and the opportunity for organizations, institutions, and agencies to post information on grants available for economic research.

IEG Fellowship Information: The Institute hosts several fellowship programmes for research scholar
Sir Ratan Tata (SRT) Fellowships: The Sir Ratan Tata Fellowship programme was instituted at the IEG in 2000 to provide Indian research scholars an opportunity to undertake post-doctoral research. One of the fellowships is at the Assistant Professor level (for two years and extendable for a third year) and another at the Associate Professor/Professor level (for one year). Since its inception, the Institute has hosted 12 Fellows. During their tenure, many Fellows have written papers and organized workshops; some have prepared and published book manuscripts.
ICSSR Doctoral Fellowships: IEG offers four Ph.D. Fellowships every year in economics and sociology.

Columbia University's Research Fund: ISERP supports the research of Columbia faculty and graduate students in the social sciences. For detail upcoming funding opportunities click on the link.

Funding opportunities with the IGC(International Growth Centre): The IGC aims to promote sustainable growth in developing countries by providing demand-led policy advice based on frontier research. Based at the London School of Economics and in partnership with the University of Oxford, the IGC directs a global network of world-leading researchers and in-country teams in Africa and Asia. The IGC provides funding for high-quality, policy-relevant research on structural change and inclusive growth. While there is no set guideline for funding amount, the IGC generally approves projects in the £5,000 – £150,000 window. The average value commissioned is about £50,000.

Research Funding Opportunity from the Economics and Environmental Policy Research Network: Proposals can be submitted by faculty, graduate students, or post-doctoral fellows. Both full research proposals (typically not exceeding $40,000, to be completed by March 31st 2020; or up to $60,000 for longer research projects to be completed by March 31st, 2021) and shorter research development proposals (not exceeding $10,000; to be completed by March 31st 2019) will be considered for funding.

Trinity College Dublin, Department of economics: The Department of Economics invites applications for fully funded PhD scholarships at Trinity College Dublin. Financial support is typically provided in the form of tuition grants, stipends, teaching and research assistantships. Applications from excellent candidates in all research fields will be considered for financial support.

External Research Activities supported by the Reserve Bank through the Development Research Group: The Development Research Group (DRG) was constituted in the Reserve Bank (hereafter the ‘Bank’) as part of the Department of Economic and Policy Research (DEPR) in November 1991, with the objective of undertaking quick and effective policy-oriented research, backed by strong analytical and empirical formulations, on subjects of current interest. Through the DRG, the Bank provides financial support to individual researchers/experts and universities/research institutions to facilitate theoretical and quantitative research and teaching/training in economics, banking, finance and other subjects of interest to the Bank

Funding from LSE for research Programmes : LSE  offer over 100 major studentships to new PhD students in the form of LSE PhD Studentships and LSE ESRC Studentships. Studentships are tenable for four years and cover full fees and an annual stipend, which is £17,000 - 18,000 for students starting in 2020. ESRC funding : LSE has an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) and has ESRC studentships in a number of programmes for UK and EU students. Studentships are tenable for three or four years, depending on the programme of study. They cover full fees (UK and EU level) and an annual stipend, which is £16,777.

UBS/PaineWebber Scholarship : A scholarship for minority students attending UNCF Member Colleges and Universities majoring in a business discipline such as economics. Award amount: $8,000

University of New York Subject Guide on Economics
O P Jindal Global University, Global Library Subject Guide on Environmental Economics

Acknowledgements

The Staff of Global Library gratefully acknowledge contribution of ProfVikash Vaibhav, Assistant professor, Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities(JSLH) for evaluating the draft and making valuable additions to the resource guide.