jfi-topic-selection

Topic Selection (jfi-topic-selection)

When to trigger

• Deciding whether a project fits the Journal of Financial Intermediation (JFI) at all
• Choosing whether the paper's spine is a model (theory) or an empirical design

The JFI fit bar

JFI is an Elsevier journal on **banking, financial intermediation, and the economics of financial

institutions and markets, publishing both theory and empirics. The decisive question is: is an

intermediary or financial-institution mechanism first-order?** Strong fits put banks, lenders, dealers,

insurers, or other intermediaries — and the frictions they resolve or create (information asymmetry,

monitoring, liquidity transformation, capital and regulation, relationship lending) — at the center.

A paper is off-fit if intermediation is incidental: a pure asset-pricing result, a corporate-finance

study where banks are just a control, or a macro paper with no institutional channel. Redirect those to a

general finance or field journal unless you can make the intermediation mechanism the load-bearing

contribution.

Theory vs. empirics (decide early)

• Theory-led: the contribution is a model of intermediary behavior or a market friction. Plan around

assumptions, propositions, and proof exposition (see jfi-identification-strategy) and a numerical example

(see jfi-data-analysis).

• Empirics-led: the contribution is a credibly identified fact about banks/credit. Plan around a causal

design and bank/loan-level data (see jfi-identification-strategy, jfi-data-analysis).

This choice shapes how almost every later skill is applied, so make it now.

Fit decision table

| Project | Verdict | Why |

|---|---|---|

| Relationship lending and information capture in a credit register | Strong | Core intermediation mechanism |

| Bank capital shock transmission to credit and firms | Strong | Regulation working through the intermediary balance sheet |

| Deposit competition and franchise value | Strong | Liability-side intermediation economics |

| Fintech lenders displacing bank credit | Strong if the displacement runs through screening/monitoring | The intermediation contrast must do the work |

| Bank stock-return anomalies | Redirect | Asset pricing wearing bank clothing |

| Firm capital structure with bank debt as one covariate | Redirect | Banks incidental to the question |

| Macro credit cycles with no institutional channel | Redirect | No intermediary mechanism to test |

The JBF boundary test

A quick differentiator from the Journal of Banking and Finance, JFI's closest neighbor: JBF accommodates

broad empirical banking — institutional documentation, cross-country performance, risk-management

practice. JFI expects the paper to test, discipline, or extend an intermediation mechanism. Ask:

"which theory of intermediation does my result speak to?" If the honest answer is "none, but the facts

are useful," the project is likely a better JBF match; if a named friction does the work, you are on JFI

ground.

Worked fit check (illustrative)

A draft shows banks with older depositor bases raise deposit rates 15bp less after policy hikes. As pure

documentation: borderline at best. Re-anchored to the deposit-franchise mechanism — market power over

inattentive depositors funds stable long-duration lending, with the asset-side prediction then tested —

the same data become a strong JFI fit. At this venue, topic selection is mechanism selection.

Rescue moves for a borderline verdict, in order of preference: (1) find the intermediation prediction

your setting can uniquely test and promote it to the headline; (2) add the heterogeneity cut (bank

capital, relationship intensity, depositor stickiness) that separates the intermediary channel from

alternatives; (3) if neither exists, redirect early — before the non-refundable submission fee, not

after. Run this check again whenever the headline result changes during analysis; fit verdicts drift.

Anti-patterns

• Submitting an asset-pricing or corporate-finance paper where intermediation is decorative
• Leaving "theory or empirics?" unresolved, producing a paper that is thin on both
• Choosing JFI only because of fit with a sub-literature without a clear intermediary mechanism

Output format

【Intermediation mechanism】<the first-order bank/intermediary channel>
【Fit verdict】strong / borderline / redirect-elsewhere
【Paper type】theory-led / empirics-led / both
【Next skill】jfi-literature-positioning