It has been the subject of several journalistic articles, and has been heavily criticised by academics, due to its reputation for racist and misogynistic discussions as well as personal attacks.
[1][2] Launched in 2008, the site was intended for PhD students to discuss the Economics job market.
[3][4] The original founder of the site was an anonymous academic who went by the name Tatonnement, who later handed EJMR over to its current administrator, who goes by the name Kirk.
[5] In May 2023, the fraud-tracking website Hucksters.net connected David Griffith-Jones, the son of famed economist Stephany Griffith-Jones, to the ownership history of EJMR,[6][7] although he claimed in emails with Inside Higher Ed that he was no longer involved with the website.
According to the researchers, "our analysis reveals that the users who post on EJMR are predominantly economists, including those working in the upper echelons of academia, government and the private sector".