Depends a bit on the branch/focus of economics you're looking at, and which nation/region you want to read about, but a broadly uncontroversial list would be:
The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press (colloquial known as "the QUGE")
Econometrica, Econometric Society
Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association
Journal of Economic Growth, Springer
Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier
Maybe swap in the Journal of Political Economy if you're looking for more political leaning research. Swap in the American Economic Review if you're interested in more American-centric research.
Just to add some context, the term "Top 5" is not subjective, it's a reference to those five journals. Tenure and promotion decisions in top departments based their decisions on publications in those journals.[1]
This is the correct answer and would get the agreement of probably better than 95% of the profession.
The suggestion above that JEL is a top five is bizarre. The CS equivalent is saying that the book “learn python in 21 days” is a top outlet for CS research.
The authors of this paper should be deeply embarrassed about the way they handled that data, but I’m slightly relieved to see that this garbage was published in a tenth-rate journal no one has ever heard of. (Though to be clear there are definitely problems with what gets through in top journals too!)
QJE and Econometrica yes. JEL is excellent but not one of the "top 5": it's literature reviews. JFE is big in finance but not top 5. JEG, not even close - it's a field journal.
