The World Economics Journal aims to provide a focused outlet for high quality peer reviewed research, and editorially reviewed comment, on the use, measurement, accuracy, and improvement of economic data.

Economic data is used for many important purposes ranging from providing the base for setting economic policy at the national level, through to investment appraisal of many kinds, and aid disbursement. But it is often of poor quality, even in developed countries.

The most basic of all economic measures, Gross Domestic Product, is flawed for many reasons, ranging from the exclusion of the informal economy, through to the inadequate proxy measures used to estimate the private services and Government sectors of activity. Nevertheless measures of GDP are used daily throughout the world for countless purposes.

In less developed countries the resources available for producing economic data are almost universally inadequate. The problems of counting population size are almost insuperable in many emerging markets, but even in places like central London problems have been encountered. And in some countries corruption and political calculation overtakes the need for good data.

This is a very large subject, but one starting to be understood as crucial. Good economic data in indispensable for the proper conduct of economic policy, and for many other needs. But it is exceedingly difficult to produce good data given the resources usually available. The purpose of the World Economics Journal is to help improve the quality of economic data, by all means available.

Given the intensely practical nature of the subject matter of the Journal, one of our distinguishing characteristics has been a plea to authors to write in an easily comprehensible style, without jargon or mathematics, allowing a wide readership to benefit from the thoughts of our eminent authors.