Articles in these journals are mostly quite technical and hard to read for non-specialists. However, almost anyone's list of the top journals in economics would probably include these journals.

• American Economic Review. Published by the American Economic Association. This journal publishes articles in all fields of economics.
• Journal of Political Economy. Published by the University of Chicago Press. This journal publishes articles in all fields of economics.
• Econometrica. Published by the Econometric Society, an international society of econometricians and mathematical economists. These two groups no longer overlap much, but they did when the Society was founded in 1930. All articles in this journal are highly technical and inaccessible except to specialists. In fact, almost no one can understand all the articles in any particular issue!
• Quarterly Journal of Economics. Published by the Harvard University Press. This journal publishes articles in all fields of economics.

These journals rank slightly lower in quality but are easier to read and often cover topics of clear policy relevance.

• Economic Inquiry. Published by the Western Economic Association. Includes articles in all fields of economics.
• Southern Economic Journal. Published by the Southern Economic Association. Includes articles in all fields of economics.
• Journal of Law and Economics. Published by the University of Chicago Press, this journal focuses on issues related to law and economics, such as antitrust, regulation, property rights, and so forth. The articles use little math or statistics.
• Journal of Economic History. Published by the Economic History Association.
• Explorations in Economic History.Published by the Cliometric Society, another association of economic historians.
• Industrial and Labor Relations Review. A multidisciplinary journal published by Cornell University's New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Economics articles typically include report empirical (statistical) studies using regression analysis.
• Journal of Human Resources. A labor economics journal published by the University of Wisconsin. Articles typically include empirical (statistical) studies reported using regression analysis.

These journals focus on summarizing and evaluating an existing body of research rather than reporting new research. Papers are usually invited rather than submitted at the author's initiative.

• Journal of Economic Literature. Published by the American Economic Association. This journal has a special function: it indexes articles from all other journals. It also publishes "survey" articles summarizing research in particular areas, and book reviews.
• Journal of Economic Perspectives, also published by the American Economic Association, is deliberately kept at a low technical level (hardly any equations). Special departments include current policy issues and economics teaching methods.