Research Guides: Political Science: Political Economy

Introduction

Political Economy

Political economy is the systemic study of economic forces in society. The field of political economy covers topics such as social choice, electoral competition, public choice, public economics, and comparative electoral systems. The following list of reference materials, databases and resources are recommended for conducting research in this area of study. Before using the recommended article databases below to start your research, here are a few tips when choosing databases:

Locate background information with a subject encyclopedia such as The SAGE Encyclopedia of Economics and Society.
Look for articles in a general article database such as EBSCO Discovery.
Use subject databases such as EconLit for subject-specific articles.

Background Resources

New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online (Palgrave Macmillan)
The online edition of The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics contains the full text of the 8 volume print edition with continual updates. More than 1,500 economists contributed almost 1,900 signed entries; more than 1,000 of the entries are new or 'heavily revised' and expanded. Along with the descriptions of economic method from earlier editions, this edition includes much information on 'what those methods have found.' It also offers new emphasis on advances that have occurred in microeconomics, Bayesian theory, game theory, and behavioral, international, and experimental economics.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History
International in scope and spanning all time periods of human history, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History includes 900 original articles by noted scholars from more than thirty-five countries. Articles range from 500-word entries on inventors, theoreticians, and industry leaders to overarching, 8,000-word essays on markets, industries, and labor. With coverage ranging from accounting and advertising to zoning and zoos, this landmark works stands at the busy intersection of history and the social sciences.
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Economics and Society
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Economics and Society emphasizes the contemporary world, contemporary issues, and society. Contains 4 volumes with approximately 800 signed articles ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 words.

General Article Databases

The two largest general academic databases are EBSCOhost and ProQuest Central. Known primarily by their vendor names, EBSCO and ProQuest are aggregators of individual databases that use a single search interface. Each contain a combination of full-text and citation databases and provide a varied mix of scholarly journals, trade publications, general magazines, and newspaper resources. EBSCO and ProQuest are also multidisciplinary, which means they cover a wide range of subject areas.

EBSCO Discovery Service This link opens in a new window
EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) encompasses articles in databases across many disciplines. Users can locate peer reviewed articles, videos, audio files, images, and more from a range of subjects.

Full download of DRM-protected ebooks requires EBSCO account registration and Adobe Digital Editions.
Note: NYU Libraries is retiring EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) in June 2025. The Catalog Search replaces EDS as the tool for searching across multiple publishers’ databases and platforms. You can also use EBSCOhost to search across the full set of EBSCO-only databases.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Central is a large, multidisciplinary database with over 11,000 titles, with over 8,000 titles in full-text. It serves as the central resource for researchers at all levels in all markets. Over 160 subjects areas are covered extensively in this product including business and economics, health and medical, news and world affairs, technology, social sciences and more.

Key Economic Article Databases

ABI/INFORM This link opens in a new window
ABI/INFORM features full-text journals, dissertations, working papers, key business, and economics periodicals. Researchers can locate country- and industry-focused reports, and its international focus provides a picture of companies and business trends around the world.
EconLit This link opens in a new window
EconLit is published by the American Economic Association and indexes and abstracts a wide range of economics-related literature. An expanded version of the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) indexes of journals, books, and dissertations, EconLit covers both economic theory and application. Coverage dates: 1969 to present.

EconPapers
EconPapers is the search interface for RePEc (repec.org), an open access database of over 700,000 scholarly business and economic working papers, 1, 000,000 journal articles, 4,000 software items, 27,000 downloadable books and 27,500 book chapters. Most publications are available full text, although access to some journal articles requires an institutional subscription.
Fed in Print
Index to all Federal Reserve Board and Banks' publications with selected full text in more recent years.

NBER Working Papers This link opens in a new window
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) includes the entire run of NBER Working Papers and NBER working paper series on historical factors in long-run growth and the NBER Technical Working Papers.
OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
OECD iLibrary is the online portal for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The iLibrary includes book collections, policy reports, statistical abstracts, and the OECD.Stat tool, with which users can create custom extracts from the OECD data warehouse.

RePEc (Research Papers in Economics)
RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in 75 countries to enhance the dissemination of research in Economics and related sciences. The heart of the project is a decentralized bibliographic database of working papers, journal articles, books, books chapters and software components, all maintained by volunteers. The collected data is then used in various services as described below.
SSRN's Economics Research Centers Papers
Social Science Research Network is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research and is composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences. NOTE: In order to subscribe to the NYU network one must create an account with their NYU email address. Please note that when accessing through off-site connection you may encounter a login screen which indicates you can 'login anonymously.' If you reach this choose to login anonymously and you will be granted access.
World Bank - Publications and Documents
The World Bank is a development institution which seeks to reduce poverty in middle-income and creditworthy poor countries.The Publications and Documents section offers the following full-text free resources: (1) Documents and Reports provides operational documents, formal and informal research papers, and most bank publications;(2)The Open Knowledge Repository (OKR) provides free access to thousands of research outputs and knowledge products on development, and (3) Archives provides official World Bank records from 1946 to the current.