~100 Economics Papers
A curated reading list of ~100 economics papers, from classics to cutting-edge working papers
~100 Economics Papers
Curated by Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24)
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Introduction
This is a list of approximately 100 economics papers curated by Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24). The list spans from foundational classics like Arrow (1963) and Vickrey (1961) all the way to cutting-edge working papers from 2025, covering industrial organization, development, labor, macro, trade, information economics, and political economy.
Nicholas Decker's motivation
When I was becoming interested in economics, I was dependent upon reading lists. They're the only feasible way to understand what is out there. I would read through things start to finish. Now I have grown, and I would like to pass on what I know. My intent in this is to give you a hundred papers which inspired wonder in me, and might well do the same in you.
I did a similar exercise last year, but I'm now somewhat embarrassed by my choices. My intent is to do a similar exercise every year, until I am no longer embarrassed.
Feitong's Note
The topic categorizations were generated by Claude Opus 4.6 and are necessarily imperfect — many papers span multiple fields. For example, Acemoglu & Linn (2004) touches both innovation and health economics, and Bertrand, Duflo & Mullainathan (2003) is an econometrics paper but is filed under Information & Behavioral for its broad methodological influence. The categories are meant as a rough guide for navigating the list, not a definitive taxonomy.
Topic Areas
The papers are organized into eight categories:
- Industrial Organization — market power, auctions, mechanism design, pricing, competition, and collusion
- Development Economics — agricultural productivity, cash transfers, technology adoption, management, and health interventions in developing countries
- Labor & Inequality — gender wage gaps, neighborhood effects, intergenerational mobility, earnings dynamics
- Public & Health Economics — insurance markets, unemployment insurance, pharmaceutical regulation, food assistance
- Macro & Growth — productivity, inflation, population growth, fiscal policy, measurement
- Trade & Urban — transportation infrastructure, urban density, congestion pricing, international trade theory
- Information & Behavioral — media slant, persuasion, information asymmetry, behavioral biases, causal inference methods
- Political Economy — colonial origins of institutions, persistence of inequality, state formation, corruption