JEL Classification Codes Guide
The guide provides JEL Code application guidelines, keywords, and examples of items within each classification.
The "JEL" classification system originated with the Journal of Economic Literature and is a standard method of classifying scholarly literature in the field of economics. It is used in many of the AEA's published research materials.
Use the guide to gain insight on how JEL Codes are used to classify articles, dissertations, books, book reviews, and working papers. You will also find it is helpful when adding classification codes to your own work.
Click here for printer-friendly formats of the JEL Classification System.
| A General Economics and Teaching |
| B History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches |
| C Mathematical and Quantitative Methods |
| D Microeconomics |
| E Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics |
| F International Economics |
| G Financial Economics |
| H Public Economics |
| I Health, Education, and Welfare |
| J Labor and Demographic Economics |
| K Law and Economics |
| L Industrial Organization |
| M Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics |
| N Economic History |
| O Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth |
| P Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems |
| Q Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics |
| R Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics |
| Y Miscellaneous Categories |
| Z Other Special Topics |
| K | Law and Economics |
| Guideline: | Covers studies about issues related to the intersection of law and economics. Studies emphasizing the economic analysis of law (equity or efficiency) should be classified here. While studies emphasizing the actual effects (empirical studies) of law on the performance of an economy, a sector or sectors of an economy, or individual agents should be cross-classified here and under the other appropriate category or categories. Studies about these subjects related to economic development should be cross-classified here and under O17, and those related to socialist and transitional economies (or other economic systems) should be cross-classified here and under P37 (or P48). Studies about the market for legal services should be classified under L84. |
| Keywords: | |
| K00 | General |
| K000 | Law and Economics: General |
| Guideline: | Covers general studies about issues related to law and economics, including survey articles, data and their sources, and textbooks. Also covers studies about the broad issues related to the economics of legal principles and the effects of legal institutions on the performance of economies. |