qe-workflow

QE Workflow Router (qe-workflow)

Overview

This is the router. It tells you **which qe- skill to use at the current stage* of a manuscript aimed at Quantitative Economics (QE) — the empirically and computationally oriented general-interest journal of the Econometric Society, the sister of Econometrica (more theoretical/methodological) and Theoretical Economics (pure theory). QE rewards papers that develop or apply quantitative methods to substantive economic questions — empirical, structural/computational, experimental, or simulation-based — with documented data and reproducible code.

Default assumption: unless the user says otherwise, treat the target as QE. Operational tells that you are at QE and not a sibling or a generic top journal: Econometric Society membership is required to submit (at least one author a member); there is a submission fee (US$100 regular / US$50 student); the manuscript must be posted publicly during review; the ES Data Editor runs a pre-acceptance reproducibility check (DCAS-compatible, not the JAE archive); QE is Open Access (CC BY-NC) with a post-proof publication fee based on production cost per page. Wiley product metadata checked on 2026-06-20 lists Bernard Salanié as editor. Re-verify volatile specifics on the official ES and Wiley pages.

When to trigger

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

Routing table

| Current symptom | Next skill |

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

| Question feels narrow / not clearly general-interest quantitative | qe-topic-selection |

| Contribution vs. the frontier is fuzzy or undersold | qe-literature-positioning |

| The "so what" / one-sentence claim is not sharp | qe-contribution-framing |

| Empirical causal design or structural identification is shaky | qe-identification-strategy |

| Estimation, moments, or data handling need work | qe-data-analysis |

| Exhibits are dense; significance asterisks still present | qe-tables-figures |

| Prose buries the idea; abstract/intro do not land | qe-writing-style |

| Data/code deposit, README, or ES Data Editor prep | qe-replication-and-data-policy |

| Want to understand referee timeline / desk-reject odds / transfer | qe-review-process |

| Ready to submit via the ES portal; need a preflight | qe-submission |

| Received an R&R; need a response-letter strategy | qe-rebuttal |

Default order

1. qe-topic-selection — lock the substantive quantitative question
2. qe-literature-positioning — stake the contribution vs. the frontier
3. qe-contribution-framing — sharpen the one-sentence claim
4. qe-identification-strategy — causal design or structural identification
5. qe-data-analysis — estimation, moments, diagnostics
6. qe-tables-figures — exhibits without significance asterisks
7. qe-writing-style — make the idea land (abstract + intro last)
8. qe-replication-and-data-policy — assemble the ES-compliant package
9. qe-review-process — calibrate expectations / consider Econometrica transfer
10. qe-submission — ES portal preflight
11. qe-rebuttal — after the R&R

> qe-writing-style is a late-stage polish; do not rewrite the intro before identification/estimation settle.

Anti-patterns

• Skipping qe-replication-and-data-policy until acceptance — the ES Data Editor checks before acceptance
• Letting qe-tables-figures polish exhibits while estimation is still moving
• Treating QE like Econometrica (method-first) or a generic fee-free top-5 journal

Routing by paper archetype

QE spans four quantitative branches, and the bottleneck differs by branch. Read the archetype, then enter the chain at the right link.

| Archetype | Likely first bottleneck | Enter at |

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

| structural / computational estimation | numerical validation + parameter identification | qe-identification-strategy → qe-data-analysis |

| applied micro / finance causal design | staggered-DID or weak-IV credibility | qe-identification-strategy |

| experiment (own data) | pre-registration + estimand (Jan 2026 rules) | qe-topic-selection → qe-identification-strategy |

| simulation / measurement | robustness to grids/tuning + reproducibility | qe-data-analysis → qe-replication-and-data-policy |

Worked routing example (illustrative)

A user says: "My structural labor model estimates fine, but a referee called the counterfactual numerically fragile and the welfare gain not robust." That is two distinct QE pushbacks — numerical accuracy not validated and results not robust to specification — both owned by qe-data-analysis, with the identification defense in qe-identification-strategy. Route there first; only once the headline welfare number is stable (say it settles at 4.2%, s.e. 0.6, illustrative) do you return to qe-tables-figures and qe-rebuttal to present and defend it.

Minimal decision snippet

if decision_letter_arrived:        -> qe-rebuttal
elif ready_to_submit:              -> qe-submission
elif exhibits_or_significance:     -> qe-tables-figures
elif estimation_or_numerics:       -> qe-data-analysis
elif identification_shaky:         -> qe-identification-strategy
elif claim_or_positioning_fuzzy:   -> qe-contribution-framing / qe-literature-positioning
else:                              -> qe-topic-selection