Use when anticipating the objections referees and coeditors will raise on an American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics (AEJ: Macro) manuscript, and calibrating desk-reject and revision odds, before submission. Pre-empts pushback and plans the review; it does not draft the post-decision response letter (use aejmac-rebuttal).
SkillScore82Maintained
Automatic
◆Research pack
Last verified 8/15/2026
What it changes
Passed 17 of 21 test cases with the skill, and 14 of 21 without it.
Without skill68%
With skill82%
Checks it passed that the model alone missed
Recommends executing primary identification defenses before submission.
Identifies structural model calibration sourcing as a primary objection.
Recommends pairing each predictable objection defense with one exhibit in the paper.
and 3 more in the full report
3 fixed15 passed either way4 still failing0 broke
Pass-rate lift
+14 pp
Tokens
+24%
Agent turns
0%
Response time
-19%
Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/15/2026v118 of 22 cases passed with skill · 21 comparable
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
See it in action
One of 2 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
1 of 2
Prompt
Our SVAR model of monetary transmission uses quarterly US macroeconomic data strictly from 1982 to 2007. What sample breakdown objection will an AEJ: Macro referee likely highlight?
What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked
Without skill
With skill
Identifies structural sample break concerns such as the Zero Lower Bound regime.
Passed
Passed
Recommends reporting sample splits across structural breaks alongside baseline results.
Missed
Passed
case-13 · gemini-3.6-flash · 8/15/2026 · answers are capped and redacted
What's inside
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
SKILL.md67 linessingle file
Referee Strategy (aejmac-referee-strategy)
When to trigger
The draft is near-complete and you want to find the holes a referee will exploit
You are gauging desk-reject risk or whether the paper is "ready"
You need to decide which robustness checks to run before submitting vs. hold in reserve
You want to pre-empt the predictable macro objections in the paper itself
How AEJ: Macro review works (verified 2026-06; re-confirm on the official AEA pages)
Managed by the Editor (Ayşegül Şahin, 检索于 2026-06；以官网为准) and coeditors; single-blind external peer review (the author is known to the referee; referees are anonymous to the author). Note this is single-blind, unlike some AEJs/economics venues that anonymize the author.
Desk rejection is possible without referees; editorial decisions weigh the probability of meeting AEJ: Macro standards, breadth of topic, and interest to the AEJ: Macro audience.
After conditional acceptance, the AEA Data Editor runs the reproducibility check before publication (see aejmac-replication-package).
The predictable macro objections (pre-empt each in the paper)
Objection a macro referee raises
Where it lands
Pre-emption
"The identifying assumption is not defended" (Cholesky ordering, sign set, exclusion)
identification
Argue the assumption economically; show robustness to alternatives (aejmac-identification)
"The shock is anticipated / endogenous"
identification
Show unpredictability from macro history; use narrative/high-frequency instruments
"This is a Great-Moderation / pre-ZLB artifact"
robustness
Sample splits across the breaks, baseline shown alongside (aejmac-robustness)
"Calibration is undisciplined / free parameters"
theory-model
Source every parameter; targeted + untargeted moments; sensitivity
"The counterfactual ignores the Lucas critique"
theory-model
Argue policy-invariance of estimated parameters
"SVAR and LP would disagree"
robustness
Run the cross-method check and show agreement
"Set-identified results reported as a point"
identification / tables
Report the identified set / median-target with a band
"Not broad enough for AEJ: Macro"
topic / positioning
Re-frame for general interest; name the audience (aejmac-topic-selection)
"Results not reproducible"
replication
Build the openICPSR package early, incl. simulation code
Calibrating the odds
Desk-reject risk is high when: breadth is thin (a field-specialist paper), the contribution sentence is missing, or the headline quantity is buried. Fix with aejmac-topic-selection / aejmac-literature-positioning / aejmac-writing-stylebefore submitting.
R&R is likely when the question is broad and the result credible but the robustness/identification defense is incomplete — referees will ask for the checks. Pre-running the obvious ones shortens the cycle.
Hold-in-reserve strategy: run the decisive robustness checks before submission; keep a second tier ready to deploy in the response letter rather than front-loading every table.
Suggesting referees & framing the cover
Suggest referees who span the theory and empirical sides if the paper is a hybrid, so neither side is judged only by the other camp.
The cover letter / framing should state the broad-interest claim and the headline quantity plainly — give the editor the breadth argument they need to send it out.
Use when anticipating how AEJ: Economic Policy referees and editors will read a manuscript, before submission or before an R&R, to pre-empt the objections that sink policy-evaluation papers. Maps likely pushback to fixes and calibrates expectations; it does not write the response letter (see aejpol-rebuttal) or fix the identification.