Less is certainly not more for the American Economic Association. According to David Warsh’s latest column, Broader, Deeper, they have adopted plans to produce four more economic journals, all titled – prosaically enough – American Economic Journal. They will cover macroeconomics, microeconomics, economic policy and applied economics.
Here is much more information. Is this good news? I fear greater fragmentation in an already-splintering profession. Could this mean fewer idea pieces and greater room for excess specialization? I like the idea of whacking commercial journal publishers but is it wise to centralize so much influence in one centrally-chosen set of editors?
Even though I don’t understand a lot of stuff and am only an undergrad it seems to me that there is way to much specilized journals in all academic discplines. I think we should look to generalize things rather then published so many articles on special cases.
“I fear greater fragmentation in an already-splintering profession.”
Should economics be immune to the long-tail phenomenon?
Tyler,
While the actual journals are more fragmented, I cannot recall the last time I readan economics paper in a journal. Now, I’m not an economist by trade, but if an article is interesting I am likely to read about it or find the WP through NBER or SSRN. There is no real fragmentation on the internet.
Comments on this entry are closed.