AEJ: Macro Workflow Router (aejmac-workflow)

Overview

This is the router. It tells you which aejmac- skill to use at the current stage* of a manuscript aimed at the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics (AEJ: Macro) — the American Economic Association's quarterly, broad-interest macro journal (founded 2009; one of four AEJs). AEJ: Macro rewards papers that bring quantitative discipline and policy relevance to a substantive macro question across growth, business cycles, monetary and fiscal policy, labor-macro, international macro, and macro-finance.

The defining feature of AEJ: Macro is methodological breadth: it publishes both quantitative-theoretical work (DSGE, heterogeneous-agent, structural estimation, calibrated models) and identified-empirical work (SVAR, local projections, narrative identification, micro-data macro). A paper does not have to be one or the other — the bar is that whichever tool you use, the mapping from model/data to the macro conclusion is disciplined.

Default assumption: unless the user says otherwise, treat the target as AEJ: Macro. Operational tells that you are at AEJ: Macro and not a field-macro or general-interest sibling: submission via the AEA submission system; a membership-scaled submission fee (member/nonmember × income tier; 检索于 2026-06，以官网为准); single-blind external review managed by the editor/coeditors; JEL codes required; the AEA Data Editor (Lars Vilhuber) runs a pre-publication reproducibility check — covering simulation and calibration code, not only regression scripts — with materials deposited at the AEA Data and Code Repository on openICPSR. Editor as of 2026: Ayşegül Şahin (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准). Re-verify volatile specifics on the official AEA pages.

When to trigger

• The user asks "what should I do next?"
• A draft needs its current bottleneck diagnosed
• Work is ping-ponging between model/estimation, identification, framing, writing, and the response letter
• An AEJ: Macro decision letter arrived and the user needs to switch into revision mode

Routing table

Current symptom	Next skill
Question feels narrow / field-macro / not broad-interest	aejmac-topic-selection
Contribution vs. the macro frontier is fuzzy or undersold	aejmac-literature-positioning
Empirical identification (SVAR / LP / narrative / IV) is shaky	aejmac-identification
A quantitative model needs calibration / estimation discipline	aejmac-theory-model
Headline number not shown robust to specification / sample / tuning	aejmac-robustness
Exhibits are dense; IRFs/fan charts/fit plots unclear	aejmac-tables-figures
Prose buries the question; abstract/intro do not land	aejmac-writing-style
Data/code/simulation deposit, README, or AEA Data Editor prep	aejmac-replication-package
Want to anticipate referee objections / desk-reject odds	aejmac-referee-strategy
Ready to submit via the AEA system; need a preflight	aejmac-submission
Received an R&R; need a response-letter strategy	aejmac-rebuttal

Default order

1. aejmac-topic-selection — lock the broad-interest macro question
2. aejmac-literature-positioning — stake the contribution vs. the macro frontier
3. aejmac-identification — SVAR / LP / narrative / IV credibility (empirical branch)
4. aejmac-theory-model — calibration / structural-estimation discipline (quantitative branch)
5. aejmac-robustness — show the headline number is not fragile
6. aejmac-tables-figures — IRFs, fan charts, model-fit exhibits done right
7. aejmac-writing-style — make the idea land (abstract + intro last; ≤100-word abstract)
8. aejmac-replication-package — assemble the AEA-compliant data/code/simulation package
9. aejmac-referee-strategy — pre-empt the objections macro referees raise
10. aejmac-submission — AEA system preflight
11. aejmac-rebuttal — after the R&R

aejmac-identification and aejmac-theory-model are siblings, not a strict order: an empirical paper leans on the former, a quantitative paper on the latter, and a hybrid paper visits both. aejmac-writing-style is a late-stage polish; do not rewrite the intro before the headline number settles.

Anti-patterns

• Skipping aejmac-replication-package until acceptance — the AEA Data Editor verifies before publication, and for macro this includes simulation/calibration code, not just data cleaning
• Letting aejmac-tables-figures polish IRFs while the identification or calibration is still moving
• Treating AEJ: Macro like a field outlet (J. Monetary Economics / RED) — the bar is broad macro interest plus AEA process, not just technical correctness for specialists
• Choosing a method (DSGE vs. SVAR vs. LP) before deciding what the paper must measure — let the question pick the tool

Routing by paper archetype

AEJ: Macro spans several macro branches, and the bottleneck differs by branch. Read the archetype, then enter the chain at the right link.

Archetype	Likely first bottleneck	Enter at
empirical shock-identification (monetary/fiscal)	SVAR / narrative / proxy-VAR credibility	aejmac-identification
dynamic-effects estimation	local-projection specification + inference	aejmac-identification → aejmac-robustness
quantitative DSGE / HANK	calibration targets + parameter identification	aejmac-theory-model
structural estimation	what data moments identify each parameter	aejmac-theory-model → aejmac-robustness
model + evidence hybrid	does the model match the identified empirical response	aejmac-identification + aejmac-theory-model

Worked routing example (illustrative)

A user says: "My HANK model matches the data, but a referee says my monetary-shock series is not credibly exogenous and the consumption response is not robust to the lag length." That is two distinct AEJ: Macro pushbacks — identification of the shock (owned by aejmac-identification, narrative/high-frequency branch) and fragility of the dynamic response (owned by aejmac-robustness). The model side (aejmac-theory-model) only matters once the empirical target it is matched to is credible. Route to identification first; once the shock and the response settle (say the peak MPC-driven consumption response stabilizes at 1.4%, 90% CI [0.9, 1.9], illustrative), return to aejmac-tables-figures and aejmac-rebuttal.

Minimal decision snippet

if decision_letter_arrived:          -> aejmac-rebuttal
elif ready_to_submit:                -> aejmac-submission
elif anticipating_referees:          -> aejmac-referee-strategy
elif data_code_deposit:              -> aejmac-replication-package
elif exhibits_unclear:               -> aejmac-tables-figures
elif headline_fragile:               -> aejmac-robustness
elif model_calibration_estimation:   -> aejmac-theory-model
elif shock_or_design_shaky:          -> aejmac-identification
elif claim_or_positioning_fuzzy:     -> aejmac-literature-positioning
else:                                -> aejmac-topic-selection