Jleo workflow

JLEO Workflow Router (jleo-workflow)

Overview

This is the router. It tells you which jleo- skill to use at the current stage* of a manuscript aimed at The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization (JLEO) — the Oxford University Press journal founded in 1985 by Oliver E. Williamson and Jerry L. Mashaw at Yale, and the flagship outlet of the law-economics-organization tradition: transaction-cost economics, the theory of the firm, contracts and governance, and positive political economy (courts, legislatures, bureaucracies, federalism as institutions in the North–Weingast–Williamson line). It publishes both formal-theoretical and empirical work, triannually; Andrea Prat is Editor-in-Chief (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准).

Default assumption: unless the user says otherwise, treat the target as JLEO. Operational tells that you are at JLEO and not a sibling: the paper's payoff is an institutional or organizational claim, not a price-theory or pure-doctrine one; the question is "how does this governance structure / institution / political mechanism work and why does it take the form it does," and the contribution speaks to the new-institutional / PPE community. Submission is via the Editorial Express portal (editorialexpress.com/jleo); OUP is the publisher; the journal is COPE-compliant. Re-verify volatile specifics (editor, fees, exact limits, blinding) on the official OUP pages.

When to trigger

• The user asks "what should I do next?" on a JLEO-bound manuscript
• A draft needs its current bottleneck diagnosed against the law-economics-organization bar
• Work is ping-ponging between framing, theory/model, identification, exhibits, and the response letter
• A JLEO decision letter arrived and the user needs to switch into revision mode
• The team is unsure whether the paper belongs at JLEO versus JLE, JLS, ALER, QJPS, or Organization Science

Routing table

Current symptom	Next skill
Scope/fit uncertain; might be price-theory L&E or pure org-theory	jleo-topic-selection
Contribution vs. the institutional/PPE frontier is fuzzy or undersold	jleo-literature-positioning
Causal credibility (reform, court/committee assignment, institutional variation) is shaky	jleo-identification
The institutional/organizational model or mechanism is loose or decorative	jleo-theory-model
Results may be specification-, sample-, or inference-sensitive	jleo-robustness
Exhibits are dense or do not answer the institutional question	jleo-tables-figures
Prose buries the institutional logic; intro/abstract do not land	jleo-writing-style
Data, code, or institutional-source documentation needs packaging	jleo-replication-package
Likely referee objections should be anticipated before submitting	jleo-referee-strategy
Ready to submit via Editorial Express; need a preflight	jleo-submission
A decision letter or referee report needs a response plan	jleo-rebuttal

Default order

1. jleo-topic-selection — lock a law-economics-organization question, not a sibling's
2. jleo-literature-positioning — stake the contribution vs. the institutional/PPE frontier
3. jleo-identification — institutional/organizational causal design where the paper is empirical
4. jleo-theory-model — the transaction-cost / agency / political-agency model that gives the claim teeth
5. jleo-robustness — threat-organized checks, not a mechanical appendix
6. jleo-tables-figures — exhibits that show the institutional comparison cleanly
7. jleo-writing-style — make the institutional logic land (intro + abstract last)
8. jleo-replication-package — institutional/organizational/political data paths and code
9. jleo-referee-strategy — anticipate the institutional-economist referee
10. jleo-submission — Editorial Express preflight
11. jleo-rebuttal — after the decision letter

jleo-writing-style is a late-stage polish; do not rewrite the intro before the model and identification settle. Theory and empirics co-evolve at JLEO — jleo-theory-model and jleo-identification often loop.

Routing by paper archetype

JLEO accepts several shapes, and the binding constraint differs by shape. Read the archetype, then enter the chain at the right link.

Archetype	Likely first bottleneck	Enter at
positive political economy model (legislature/court/bureaucracy)	comparative statics + an empirical or institutional test	jleo-theory-model → jleo-identification
transaction-cost / make-or-buy / governance-choice empirics	selection into governance form; endogenous boundaries	jleo-identification
contracts & theory of the firm (formal)	a sharp, novel mechanism vs. the canon	jleo-theory-model
institutions & reform (causal)	reform/assignment as a credible design, not OLS+controls	jleo-identification
organizational governance / personnel inside firms	mechanism + measurement of the organizational object	jleo-topic-selection → jleo-theory-model

Sibling boundaries (why JLEO and not its neighbors)

• vs. Journal of Law and Economics (JLE, Chicago): JLE is price-theory law-and-economics — antitrust, regulation, crime, empirical effects of legal rules on markets. JLEO adds organization: governance structures, the firm, and the political institutions that make and enforce rules. If the payoff is a market effect of a rule, lean JLE; if it is why the institution/organization takes this form, lean JLEO.
• vs. Journal of Legal Studies (JLS): JLS is broader law-and-economics with more doctrinal/legal-theory range; JLEO is tighter on institutions, organization, and PPE.
• vs. Quarterly Journal of Political Science (QJPS) / American Political Science Review: those are political-science homes for PPE; JLEO welcomes PPE but frames it as institutional economics with formal or empirical economics standards.
• vs. American Law and Economics Review (ALER): ALER is the AALEA's broad L&E outlet; JLEO is more organization- and governance-centric.
• vs. Organization Science: Org Science is management/org-theory (behavioral, sociological); JLEO is economics of organization (transaction costs, agency, formal incentives).

Anti-patterns

• Treating JLEO as interchangeable with JLE (price-theory) or Organization Science (org-theory)
• Submitting a pure reduced-form market study with no institutional/organizational object as the payoff
• Polishing prose before the model and identification are stable
• Letting an appendix carry the institutional claim the main text must establish
• Quoting volatile process facts (editor, fee, blinding) as permanent instead of marking 待核实

Output format

【Target】The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization (JLEO)
【Archetype】PPE model / TCE governance empirics / contracts-theory / institutions-causal / org-governance
【Current bottleneck】fit / contribution / identification / model / robustness / exhibits / style / submission / revision
【Next skill】<one jleo-* skill>
【Reason】why this is the binding constraint for an institutional/organizational claim
【Source check】official facts verified or marked 待核实