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