The final issue of the Heterodox Economics Newsletter...

The final issue of the Heterodox Economics Newsletter in 2013 comes with some very close submission deadlines (see especially here and here for the most urgent issues).

For many economists, the new year starts with visiting the ASSA-conference. This year’s event is in Philadelphia and although I won’t attend it myself I wanted to point you to the official booth on “Heterodox Economics” organized by Frederic S. Lee and Tae-Hee Jo (see here). I am sure they are glad if you drop by or possibly support their efforts in promoting heterodox economics in a not-so-receptive environment.

Another thing occurring every other year is the issuing of New Year’s resolutions. In that regard I decided that, instead of the futile attempt to improve my personality through abstracts vows, focusing on possible improvements of the Newsletter and its associated Heterodox Economics Directory is a worthwhile task. Since I have been appointed as new editor I have received a series of suggestions, which I would summarize as follows:

-- Provide (a greater variety of) rankings of Heterodox Journals (a controversial claim, since we know these rankings to carry methodological problems and are, thus, an inherently biased tool for assessing scholarly quality; however, I understand the practical importance of rankings).
-- Provide introductory reading lists to heterodox economics in general and individual traditions in particular.
-- Provide an exhaustive overview on heterodox textbooks.

If you have any comments on these ideas - be it a critique, specific suggestions, comments on the relative importance of these ideas, pointers to existing compilations of such knowledge or simply alternative suggestions for improving the accessibility of heterodox resources - please send me a short email expressing your views.

I wish all readers of the newsletter a happy and successful 2014!

Jakob