It's free!

The Journal of Economic Perspectives, that is. It was virtually free before - it came automatically (with online access) as part of your membership of the American Economic Association, which is US$20-40 a year - but now it's available to anyone, anywhere, for nothing. Including all the back issues (it started in 1987).

A great move, for an excellent publication that's designed to be topical, and accessible to the intelligent layperson, without compromising the intellectual quality of the economic arguments. And hopefully it's yet another little chink in the dyke of the profiteering academic publishing racket.

Maybe I should have noticed this free access myself, but I can't say I'm terribly diligent at following up on the AEA's activities (and when, by the way, are they going to move from their Stalinist one-candidate-for-AEA-president 'elections'?), so credit for drawing my attention to it goes to the Managing Editor of the JEP, Timothy Taylor, who mentioned it in this post on his (very readable) blog, Conversable Economist.

And apart from doing all that good stuff, Taylor also writes the 'Recommendations for Further Reading' part of the JEP ("readings that may be especially useful to teachers of undergraduate economics, as well as other articles that are of broader cultural interest. In general, with occasional exceptions, the articles chosen will be expository or integrative and not focus on original research"), which is a great resource for all of us who don't have the time to troll all through the latest papers at the SSRN or at the IZA. His latest recommendations are here.