Joint Entrance Examination for IIT (JEE) Economics Syllabus for the year 2026: Discover Key Subjects along with Updated Exam Structure; Access PDF Copy
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) Joint Admission Test (JAM) for 2026 is fast approaching, and for those aiming to appear for the Economics (EN) section, understanding the syllabus is crucial. Here's a breakdown of the topics covered and the exam pattern.
The IIT JAM Economics syllabus is designed to test a candidate's core knowledge and understanding of key Economics topics. It is divided into five main sections: Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Statistics for Economics, Indian Economy, and Mathematics for Economics.
In Microeconomics, you'll find topics such as consumer theory, theory of production and cost, general equilibrium and welfare, market structure, game theory, and public goods and market failure. On the other hand, Macroeconomics covers national income accounting, behavioral and technological functions, inflation and unemployment, and growth models.
The Indian Economy section delves into topics like the economy after 1991, the balance of payments crisis in 1991, major aspects of economic reforms in India after 1991, reforms in trade and foreign investment, India's labour market, and inequalities in social development, discussing achievements in health, education, and other social sectors, as well as disparities between Indian States in human development.
The Statistics for Economics section, although not specifically detailed in the provided paragraph, is likely to cover topics such as random sampling, types of sampling, point and interval estimation, estimation of population parameters using methods of moments and maximum likelihood procedures, properties of estimators, sampling distribution, confidence intervals, central limit theorem, law of large numbers, correlation and regression, and probability theory.
Mathematics for Economics includes preliminaries and functions, differential calculus, integral calculus, differential equations and difference equations, linear algebra, optimization, and probability theory, which includes sample space and events, axioms of probability and their properties, conditional probability and Bayes' rule, independent events, random variables and probability distributions, expectation, variance and higher order moments, functions of random variables, properties of commonly used discrete and continuous distributions, density and distribution functions for jointly distributed random variables, mean and variance of jointly distributed random variables, covariance and correlation coefficients.
The IIT JAM Economics syllabus also covers banking, finance, and macroeconomic policies, discussing aspects of banking in India, CRR and SLR, financial sector reforms in India, fiscal and monetary policy, savings and investment rates in India. Additionally, it includes a section on poverty, covering methodology of poverty estimation, issues in poverty estimation in India.
The IIT JAM Economics (EN) Exam Pattern consists of three sections, containing 60 questions with a total of 100 marks. The total allotted time for this online exam is 3 hours. The paper has Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ), Multiple Select Questions (MSQ), and Numerical Answer Type (NTA) questions. However, there is negative marking for MCQ questions but not for MSQ and NTA questions.
It's important to note that the goal of the IIT JAM Economics syllabus is not just to see what a candidate has memorised, but to check if they can use basic rules to solve difficult problems, showing their readiness for advanced master's and Ph.D. programs.
For comprehensive preparation, it's strongly advised to thoroughly familiarise oneself with the official IIT JAM Economics syllabus. Recommended books include "Indian Economy" by Mishra & Puri, "Macroeconomic Analysis" by Edward Shapiro and H.L. Ahuja, "Microeconomics" by Anna Koutsoyiannis and H.L. Ahuja, and "Statistics and Econometrics" by B.L Agarwal.
The IIT JAM 2026 examination is scheduled for February 15, 2026, and the official organising institute for the exam is IIT Bombay.
Preparation for the IIT JAM Economics examination requires a solid understanding of the syllabus, regular practice, and a thorough grasp of the concepts. With the right approach, candidates can be well-prepared to tackle the challenges of the exam and aim for success.