here are many excellent economics blogs out there. Whether you want to read commentaries on economic policy, find out what people are currently researching, or simply keep up-to-date with the latest economic happenings across the world, there are blogs for all tastes. Economics bloggers vary widely from individual students and professors sharing their thoughts on the state of the profession, to blogging superstars like Greg Mankiw, Paul Krugman, John Cochrane and Tyler Cowen, whose analyses are backed by years of experience and a deep knowledge of the field.
Reading economics blogs can be an easy way to get your fill of knowledge and, in many cases, they’re more palatable compared with academic journals, which can be dense and gruelling. The blogs we’ve listed – in no particular order – are the ones we here at INOMICS turn to when we’re looking for interesting, informative, and occasionally offbeat articles on a wide range of economic topics. With much of the outside world still off-limits, they also provide an excellent and productive means of passing the time. So go on, dive in.
1. Random Observations for Students of Economics
Greg Mankiw uses his blog predominantly to keep in touch with his own students, but it also serves as an excellent source of information on many economics topics to those currently studying. Mankiw himself is the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University, so quite the authority!
2. Macro Musings Blog
David Beckworth was formerly an economist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Now, he is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center of George Mason University. His specialities are monetary economics, international economics, and capital markets. He also has a podcast of the same name, and both the blog and the podcast ‘reflect his occasional musings on macroeconomic issues’.
3. Mainly Macro
Mainly Macro is a blog written by Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford Simon Wren-Lewis. Wren-Lewis is one of the most esteemed economists of the age, and his blog is, as he says, for both economists and non-economists. It is an essential resource that mixes politics and economics.
4. Confessions of a Supply Side Liberal
Miles Kimball, who holds the Eaton Chair in Economics at the University of Colorado Boulder as well as being Emeritus Professor Economics and Survey Research at the University of Michigan, writes this blog, which proclaims itself as a ‘partisan non-partisan’ economics blog. An independent who grew up ‘in an apolitical family’, his blog is obviously political but he writes that his ‘many strong opinions’ are open to revision and do not line up with either the Democrats or the Republicans. The blog itself doesn’t focus only on economics, but also on topics such as politics, diet, and even Kimball’s personal life.
5. Marginal Revolution
Two professors from George Mason University, Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok, set up Marginal Revolution in 2003. Posts come out daily from these two esteemed economists: Cowen was named in an Economist poll as one of the most influential economists of the last ten years in 2018, and in 2011 Foreign Policy named him one of its Top 100 Global Thinkers. Tabarrok meanwhile has written for many reputable publications, including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, with a focus on monetary theory, financial economics and welfare economics.
6. Conversable Economist
Timothy Taylor is the conversable economist, but he’s also an author of several books and the managing editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives. His blog focuses mainly on economics, but occasionally touches on other topics such as universities and students, and also history.
7. Naked Capitalism
Naked Capitalism is a blog written by several different writers, all of whom have credentials writing and studying economics. Naked Capitalism began in 2006 as a response to what the founders thought was the ‘obvious underreporting in the US of the severity and extent of the underpricing of risk in all credit instruments.’ It is critical of both the policies it sees as beginning in the 1970s under Reagan and Thatcher, which led to the 2008 Financial Crisis, and the response which has come afterwards, Naked Capitalism sees its goal as fighting the entrenchment of a status quo that has helped to fuel a recession which has ‘reduce[d] the bargaining power and pay of ordinary workers’ and has been ‘detrimental to most citizens’. This blog is essential reading for anybody who wants to understand the Financial Crisis, as well as what came afterwards.
8. Econbrowser
Econbrowser is written by James D. Hamilton, Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego, and Menzie Chinn, Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Its aim is to analyse current economics and policy – as simple as that. Posts come frequently, often as regularly as every day.
9. New Economic Perspectives
Another blog with multiple writers, New Economic Perspectives offers economic analyses from several highly qualified economists, legal scholars and financial market practitioners. Following the 2008 Financial Crisis, the bloggers wanted to weigh in on global economics and ‘provide an accurate description of the cause(s) of the current meltdown as well as some fresh ideas about how policymakers… should address… the continued weakness in their economies.’
10. Econlib
The Library of Economics and Liberty, or Econlib for short, is simultaneously a blog, a podcast, and a place for students and researchers to learn more about specific aspects of economics. Alongside its regular articles and essays, it sells editions of economic classics, posts videos of economists, has lists and definitions of economics terms, and provides suggestions for further reading.
11. Econometrics Beat
Dave Giles writes Econometric Beat, a self-proclaimed ‘resource for econometrics students & practitioners’. A retired Professor Emeritus from the University of Victoria, Canada, Giles still conducts research into both econometrics and applied statistics.
12. The Enlightened Economist
Diane Coyle is a Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge who specialises in competition analysis and the economics of new technologies and globalisation, including extensive work on the impacts of mobile telephony in developing countries. Consequently, her Enlightened Economist blog is an absolute must for the latest reviews and updates on books about economics & technology.
13. Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman, a household name and heavyweight economist in the modern age, writes a regular column for the New York Times on macroeconomics, trade, healthcare, social policy and politics. In case anyone hasn’t heard of him, Krugman is Professor Emeritus at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, and in 2008 won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on international trade theory. He has written many a book and even more research papers on topics centring on international trade and finance, and has also had pieces published in Foreign Affairs, Scientific American and the Harvard Business Review.
14. Real Time Economics
Real Time Economics is the Wall Street Journal’s dedicated economics section, which functions much like a blog. It provides news, commentary and analysis of both U.S. and world economics.
15. The Intelligent Economist
Intelligent Economist is a blog created by a former Economics student who wanted to share their passion for Economics with the rest of the world. Believing that education should be easily accessible and freely available, Intelligent Economist’s goal is to explain economics concepts and theories in a way that is understandable by even non-economics students.
16. Economonitor
Economonitor is the dedicated economics section of the Money Maven website, which provides ‘top news and trends from Maven’s network of economists and researchers keeping you up-to-date.’ Economonitor is written by Nouriel Roubini, former advisor to the IMF, the Federal Reserve and the World Bank, as well as a former employee of the United States Treasury Department. He is now a teacher at New York University’s Stern School of Business and chairman of Roubini Macro Associates LLC. Occasionally others write for the blog too.
17. Thoughts on Economics
Thoughts on Economics is a hobby blog account mainly focused on Post-Keynesianism, Institutionalism and related theories. The blog is critical of neoclassical and mainstream economics, and documents the errors of both of these approaches. However, it tries to not comment on the politics of the modern era; rather, ‘this blog is abstract’. Occasionally the blog will also post recipes the author likes.
18. The Undercover Economist
The Undercover Economist is written by Financial Times columnist Tim Harford, and ‘reveals the economic ideas behind everyday experiences’. Harford has written an eponymous book and has spoken at TED and the Sydney Opera House. He is also a broadcaster and formerly worked for Shell and the World Bank. He was made an OBE in 2019 ‘for services to improving economic understanding’.
19. Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog
Ed Dolan has taught at Dartmouth College, the University of Chicago, George Mason University and Gettysburg College. Along with his wife, he founded the American Institute of Business and Economics in Moscow. His blog serves as a resource centre for teaching economics.
20. Vox EU
Vox EU is the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)’s policy portal, and was set up in 2007 to promote ‘research-based policy analysis and commentary by leading economists.’ The audience and writers include economists from all sectors, as well as students of economics. It even occasionally accepts unsolicited submissions, and you can find details of the submission procedure on the website. CEPR itself has partners across the world, which work together with the aim of enhancing the quality of economic policy-making across the world through high-class research.
21. Worthwhile Canadian Initiative
The final blog on our list focuses mainly on Canadian economics, although it sometimes branches out to the rest of the world. Several authors contribute to the blog, including Frances Woolley, professor of economics at Carleton University, and Stephen Gordon, professor of economics at l’Université Laval in Quebec City, among others. It covers a wide range of topics, from macroeconomics to the environment to education, and even includes a ‘fun’ section for those times when you’re needing a bit of a break from the hard stuff.
22. Lars P. Syll
Lars Pålsson Syll is a professor at Malmö University in Sweden who focuses on the philosophy and methodology of economics, theories of distributive justice, and critical realist social science. An avowed critic of neoliberalism and market fundamentalism, his blog covers a wide range of topics in English, French, German and Swedish.
