Purpose This brief note sheds light on the links between Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.

Design/methodology/approach Three alternative methods based on keyword overlap to establish links between SDGs and JEL codes are presented.

Findings These simple linkages illustrate that the themes of SDGs have corresponding closely related JEL classification codes.

Research limitations/implications The mappings presented in this note are based on simple keyword overlap and are therefore necessarily imperfect and incomplete. There is plenty of room for further development.

Practical implications Despite the demonstrated possibility of linking SDGs to existing JEL codes, introducing a specific JEL code for each SDG would reduce search costs for those searching for economic research related to specific SDGs.

Originality/value The first and preliminary attempt to link SDGs and JEL codes.