EDIRC is an index of economics departments, institutes and research centers created in 1995 that has been feeding RePEc with data about such institutions. But beyond just a listing of institutions, it has evolved into an information source of its own right. Currently, it has the following additional features:
- Links to journals or working paper series published by the respective institutions and indexed in RePEc.
- Listings of all people affiliated with the respective institutions and registered with the RePEc Author Service.
- For these people, a link to a compilation of all their publications.
- A recent add-on is a listing of all alumni (final degree) as found on the RePEc Genealogy.
- For the alumni as well, a link to a compilation of their publications.
With close to 13,000 listed institutions, EDIRC has grown a lot since its start. After all those years, the database will now go through some gradual changes, among which are:
- New categories: the current ones were designed when there were only a few hundred listed institutions.
- About 12% of the links are known to be invalid. They are currently being systematically checked for better addresses, but this will take several months.
- Institutions that are known to be defunct and that have no links to people or publications will be removed.
- When possible, chairs and similar “micro-institutions” will be consolidated. They change too frequently and have become a maintenance burden with no significant benefit. This pertains particularly to Germanic universities.
- An effort is currently being made to add translations of institution names to English wherever possible. Indeed, it appears that even natives users search for the English name.
- Speaking of search, the search engine will be improved to make searches more intuitive and efficient than is currently the case.
Of course, any help is always appreciated. In particular, if you notice a bad link, a valid one is always appreciated. And you will be credited along with all the other contributors.
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