AEJ: Applied Workflow Router (aeja-workflow)

Overview

This is the router. It tells you which aeja- skill to use at the current stage* of a manuscript aimed at the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics (AEJ: Applied) — the American Economic Association's quarterly journal for empirical applied microeconomics with credible causal identification: labor, development, health, education, public, urban, environmental, and household finance. AEJ: Applied is empirical-first: a clean research design carrying a substantive economic question, with theory used to interpret and structure rather than to lead.

Default assumption: unless the user says otherwise, treat the target as AEJ: Applied. Operational tells that you are at AEJ: Applied and not a sibling: review is single-blind (author identities are visible to referees); submission is via the AEA ScholarOne system with fee tiers by AEA membership and country-income status; JEL codes and a 100-word abstract are required; and the signature stable differentiator is the AEA Data and Code Availability Policy — administered by the AEA Data Editor (Lars Vilhuber), accepted papers deposit data + code to the AEA Data and Code Repository on openICPSR, and the package is checked for reproducibility before publication. On 2026-06-20 the editor page listed Raymond Fisman (Boston University) as Editor, with coeditors Leah Boustan, Marika Cabral, Peter Hull, Xavier Jaravel, and Nicholas Ryan. Check live AEA pages for fees and editors before submission-week advice.

When to trigger

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

Routing table

Current symptom	Next skill
Unsure the paper fits AEJ: Applied vs AER / AEJ: Policy / a field journal	aeja-topic-selection
Contribution vs. the literature is fuzzy or undersold	aeja-literature-positioning
Causal design rests on OLS+controls, TWFE on staggered timing, or a weak IV	aeja-identification
A model is needed to interpret estimates or structure a mechanism	aeja-theory-model
Results not shown robust to specification, sample, inference	aeja-robustness
Exhibits are dense; main result not legible in one table/figure	aeja-tables-figures
Prose buries the design; abstract/intro do not land	aeja-writing-style
Data/code deposit, README, openICPSR prep for the AEA Data Editor	aeja-replication-package
Want to anticipate referee objections before submitting	aeja-referee-strategy
Ready to submit via the AEA portal; need a preflight	aeja-submission
Received an R&R; need a response-letter strategy	aeja-rebuttal

Default order

1. aeja-topic-selection — lock the applied-micro question and venue fit
2. aeja-literature-positioning — stake the marginal contribution
3. aeja-identification — make the data-to-causal-estimate mapping credible
4. aeja-theory-model — add only the theory that interprets/structures the estimate
5. aeja-robustness — show the headline survives specification, sample, inference
6. aeja-tables-figures — make the main result legible in one exhibit
7. aeja-writing-style — make the design and estimate land (abstract + intro last)
8. aeja-replication-package — assemble the openICPSR package for the AEA Data Editor
9. aeja-referee-strategy — pre-empt the objections this design invites
10. aeja-submission — AEA portal preflight (single-blind front matter, JEL, fee)
11. aeja-rebuttal — after the R&R

aeja-writing-style is a late-stage polish; do not rewrite the intro before identification and robustness settle.

Anti-patterns

• Treating the replication package as an acceptance-time chore — at AEA the Data Editor verifies reproducibility before publication, so build it as you go (aeja-replication-package)
• Polishing exhibits (aeja-tables-figures) while the identification or headline estimate is still moving
• Framing the paper as a policy question (that drifts toward AEJ: Policy) or as broad general-interest (that belongs at AER) instead of method/identification-driven applied micro

Routing by paper archetype

AEJ: Applied spans several applied-micro designs, and the first bottleneck differs by design. Read the archetype, then enter the chain at the right link.

Archetype	Likely first bottleneck	Enter at
field experiment / RCT (own data)	pre-registration, balance, attrition, estimand	aeja-identification → aeja-robustness
quasi-experiment (DID / event study)	staggered-timing bias, parallel-trends credibility	aeja-identification
regression discontinuity	density manipulation, bandwidth, bias-corrected CIs	aeja-identification → aeja-robustness
IV / shift-share	first-stage strength, exclusion, exposure design	aeja-identification
descriptive / measurement with a clean question	framing the contribution without a causal overclaim	aeja-topic-selection → aeja-literature-positioning

Worked routing example (illustrative)

A user says: "My event study on a staggered state policy looks fine, but a referee says the two-way fixed-effects estimate is contaminated and the parallel-trends story is thin." That is two AEJ: Applied pushbacks — negative-weighting / contaminating already-treated comparisons under staggered timing and pre-trend credibility — both owned by aeja-identification, with the robustness presentation in aeja-robustness. Route there first; only once the heterogeneity-robust estimate is stable (say it settles at a 3.1pp effect, s.e. 0.9, illustrative) do you return to aeja-tables-figures and aeja-rebuttal to present and defend it.

Minimal decision snippet

if decision_letter_arrived:        -> aeja-rebuttal
elif ready_to_submit:              -> aeja-submission
elif anticipating_referees:        -> aeja-referee-strategy
elif building_replication_package: -> aeja-replication-package
elif intro_or_abstract_weak:       -> aeja-writing-style
elif exhibits_dense:               -> aeja-tables-figures
elif results_not_robust:           -> aeja-robustness
elif needs_model_to_interpret:     -> aeja-theory-model
elif identification_shaky:         -> aeja-identification
elif contribution_fuzzy:           -> aeja-literature-positioning
else:                              -> aeja-topic-selection