EconLit
EconLit is a bibliographic database from the American Economic Association for finding economics literature.
What EconLit is
EconLit is a bibliographic database from the American Economic Association for finding economics literature. Its more than 2 million records span 140 years of publications and are updated weekly. Coverage includes peer-reviewed journal articles, working papers, PhD dissertations, books, book reviews, and articles in collective volumes. Search fields can include authors, titles, affiliations, publication details, document types, keywords, subject classifications, named people, and geographic descriptors. Subject descriptors follow the Journal of Economic Literature classification system. Institutional subscriptions are available through EBSCO, ProQuest, and Ovid, which provide the same data through different interfaces. Full-text links depend on library holdings; EconLit with Full Text is available only through EBSCO. AEA members have courtesy access to bibliographic records without full-text links, and that service may be phased out. EconLit is web-based, with advanced search and institutional access. Institutional pricing is supplied by providers; EBSCO offers a trial request without stating its duration.
Good
- More than 2 million records, updated weekly
- Covers 140 years of economics literature
- Includes dissertations, working papers, and books
- Advanced search includes subject and geographic fields
- Institutional access through three providers
Watch out
- Full-text links depend on library holdings
- Full-text edition is available only through EBSCO
- Collective volume records lack abstracts
- Non-English articles omitted without an English summary
Who it suits
EconLit suits economics scholars and other researchers who need to search across multiple kinds of economics publications. Institutions can choose among EBSCO, ProQuest, and Ovid, while AEA members can use the courtesy bibliographic service.
Verdict
EconLit brings extensive economics bibliography coverage and detailed search fields together in a web database. Check provider access and full-text availability with your library before relying on it for document access.
Plans and prices
From EconLit's own pricing page, checked 15 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| EconLit for AEA Members | Free | AEA-member login · bibliographic records only · no full-text links · courtesy service may be discontinued |
| EconLit (institutional subscription) | Priced on request | Available through EBSCO, ProQuest, or Ovid · Pricing supplied by platform providers |
| EconLit via EBSCO | Priced on request | Institutional database subscription · optional EconLit with Full Text available only through EBSCO |
| EconLit via Ovid | Priced on request | Institutional OvidSP subscription · pricing supplied by Wolters Kluwer |
| EconLit via ProQuest | Priced on request | Institutional subscription · pricing supplied by ProQuest |
| EconLit with Full Text | Priced on request | EBSCO only · Full-text journals alongside EconLit indexing · Pricing supplied by EBSCO |
The facts
Each one read from EconLit's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Classification
- EconLit subject descriptors use the Journal of Economic Literature classification system, with a zero added to make four-digit codes.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Controlled vocabulary
- The database uses subject descriptors based on the Journal of Economic Literature classification system.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Coverage
- The database includes peer-reviewed journal articles, working papers, PhD dissertations, books, book reviews, and collective volume articles.checked 8 Oct 2026
- Coverage size
- The AEA says EconLit contains more than 2 million records covering roughly 140 years of economics publishing.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Document type: books
- EconLit indexes books and book reviews.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Document type: collective volumes
- EconLit indexes articles from collective volumes.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Document type: dissertations
- EconLit indexes PhD dissertations.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Document type: JEL reviews
- EconLit includes book reviews from the Journal of Economic Literature.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Document type: journals
- EconLit indexes peer-reviewed journal articles.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Document type: working papers
- EconLit indexes working papers in economics.checked 15 Oct 2026
- EBSCO record count
- EBSCO describes EconLit as an abstracting and indexing database with 2,000,000 records.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Full-text linking
- Libraries can link EconLit records to their subscribed electronic journals and may offer DOI pay-per-view links for unsubscribed articles.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Full-text package
- EconLit with Full Text bundles database records with more than 500 journals and is offered only through EBSCO.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Geographic coverage
- The AEA says the database covers work from leading institutions in 75 countries.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Geographic descriptors
- Articles and working papers can receive country, regional, and economic-group geographic tags.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- The AEA describes EconLit as a reference tool for economics scholars, while ProQuest lists researchers, academics, product managers, advertisers, product development specialists, and public policy professionals among those interested in the literature.checked 8 Oct 2026
- JEL classification adoption
- An independent study says EconLit uses the JEL classification system to classify articles, dissertations, books, book reviews, and working papers.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Journal coverage
- The AEA reports that more than 1,000 journals are indexed, representing nearly one million articles from 74 countries.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Journal selection
- Journals are selected for substantial peer-reviewed economics content, including equivalent economics emphasis in interdisciplinary titles.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: author-name normalization
- The same study reports that EconLit does not standardize author names, which can cause publication rankings to underestimate researchers using variant names.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: institutional access
- The same account reports that a university library did not subscribe to EconLit, forcing the researchers to substitute another database.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Limits
- Collective volume article records do not include abstracts, and non-English articles are omitted unless the volume includes an English summary.checked 8 Oct 2026
The company
- Maker founded
- The AEA was organized in 1885 and incorporated in 1923.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Maker headquarters
- The AEA is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, with a publications office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.checked 15 Oct 2026
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