Student Economics Group Begins Distribution of Journal

Editors of the "Harvard Undergraduate Journal of Economics," the first independent economics journal written and published entirely by undergraduates, yesterday began distributing their first issue.

David O'Connor '77, managing editor of the journal, said that, to his knowledge, the University of Michigan is the only other college that has published an undergraduate economics journal.

According to O'Connor, that publication was totally funded by the economics department at Michigan, while the Harvard journal is largely independent of the Economics Department.

David Albright '78, distribution manager of the journal, said that about 700 copies of the journal will be distributed free to Harvard economics concentrators and faculty members.

Another 300 copies will be sent to libraries and economics department chairmen at other colleges and universities.

O'Connor said that he hoped that students at other schools would begin to submit articles to the journal.

Plans for an undergraduate economics journal were first made at a meeting of the Harvard Student Economics Association (HSEA) in April, 1975. HSEA solicited articles with flyers in the registration envelopes of economics concentrators in February, 1976 and by March had accepted three articles.

At that time, however, the journal didnot have enough funds to pay for the printing of its first issue. Only last month did the editors raise enough money--about $400--to pay for printing costs, mainly through alumni contributions.

The Economics Department donated an additional $200 to the journal, but will make no further contributions.

HSEA last night sponsored a mixer at Leverett House to raise money for the next issue of the journal.

Albright said that the journal would not accept paid advertisements to raise funds, because that might compromise its scholarly nature.

Albright agreed with O'Connor's desire to see more papers submitted to the journal. Only 17 articles were contributed for the first issue.

Editors of the journal hope to publish twice each year, O'Connor said, but the journal will appear three times if sufficient funds can be obtained from alumni contributions and for subscriptions.