Use when deciding whether a macro paper fits the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics (AEJ: Macro) rather than AER, J. Monetary Economics, RED, or AEJ: Applied. Tests the broad-interest macro bar and venue fit; it does not write the paper or fix identification.
SkillScore83Maintained
Automatic
◆Research pack
Last verified 8/15/2026
What it changes
Passed 20 of 24 test cases with the skill, and 7 of 24 without it.
Without skill29%
With skill83%
Checks it passed that the model alone missed
Recommends field outlets over AEJ: Macro.
Marks general reader broad interest as negative.
Identifies aejmac-literature-positioning as the next step.
and 17 more in the full report
14 fixed6 passed either way3 still failing1 broke
Pass-rate lift
+54 pp
Tokens
+9%
Agent turns
0%
Response time
-42%
Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/15/2026v120 of 24 cases passed with skill
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
See it in action
One of 14 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
1 of 14
Prompt
Our paper estimates that a statistical parameter alpha in a stylized macro model is positive at p < 0.05, but yields no quantifiable policy magnitude. Evaluate venue fit.
What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked
Without skill
With skill
Marks policy or mechanism relevance as negative due to lack of decision-relevant quantity.
Passed
Passed
Concludes the paper fails the three-leg fit for AEJ: Macro.
Missed
Passed
case-18 · 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.md64 linessingle file
Topic Selection & Venue Fit (aejmac-topic-selection)
When to trigger
You have a macro result but are unsure it is "AEJ: Macro-shaped" vs. a field outlet
The question feels technically interesting but narrow to specialists
You are choosing between AEJ: Macro, AER, JME, RED, and AEJ: Applied
A coauthor wants to lead with a method (a new DSGE block, a new estimator) rather than a macro question
The AEJ: Macro fit bar
AEJ: Macro is the AEA's quarterly, broad-interest macro journal (founded 2009; one of four AEJs). The fit test has three legs:
Substantive macro question of broad interest. Growth, business cycles, monetary/fiscal policy, labor-macro, international macro, or macro-finance — framed so a general macroeconomist (not only your subfield) cares about the answer. AEJ: Macro editorial decisions explicitly weigh breadth of topic and interest to the AEJ: Macro audience (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准).
Quantitative discipline. The paper must measure something with a credible mapping from model or data to the number. Either a quantitative-theoretical apparatus (DSGE / HANK / structural estimation / calibration) or an identified empirical design (SVAR / local projections / narrative / proxy-VAR) — AEJ: Macro welcomes both.
Policy or mechanism relevance. A memorable, decision-relevant quantity or mechanism, not just a sign or a significance star.
A paper that has only two of three is usually a field paper or an AER paper, not AEJ: Macro.
Venue decision table
Signal
Better venue
Why
Result reshapes the general macro consensus; first-order, top-of-field
AER (or AER: Insights if short)
AEJ: Macro is high-quality but not the general-interest flagship
Deep, technical contribution mainly for monetary/business-cycle theorists
J. Monetary Economics
Field depth over breadth
Quantitative dynamic-GE methods paper for the macro-methods community
Review of Economic Dynamics (RED)
RED is the quantitative-dynamics field home
Micro-empirical paper that happens to touch macro aggregates
State the macro quantity in one sentence, with units: "a 100 bp monetary tightening lowers output by X% at horizon h," or "lifecycle earnings risk explains Y% of wealth inequality."
Name the audience: which general macro readers should cite this, and for what claim?
Pick the tool the question demands, not the tool you own: if the question is the dynamic causal effect of a shock, that is SVAR/LP/narrative; if it is welfare or counterfactual under a policy regime, that is a quantitative model; if it is both, plan a model-plus-evidence paper.
Pre-empt "why not the field journal?" in one line — usually breadth + the AEA process + a quantity general readers want.
Checklist
One-sentence macro question with a quantity and units
Use when the empirical identification of a macro shock or dynamic causal effect is the bottleneck for an American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics (AEJ: Macro) manuscript — SVAR, local projections, narrative, high-frequency/proxy-VAR, or micro-data macro designs. Stress-tests the identification to the AEJ: Macro broad-interest quantitative bar; for model-parameter identification see aejmac-theory-model.