Workflow Router (jie-workflow)

When to trigger

• You are working on a JIE-targeted manuscript and are unsure which skill to use next
• You want the canonical order for the trade / international macro-finance pipeline
• You are mid-process (e.g., have data, no framing) and need the next step

What JIE expects, end to end

JIE (Elsevier; Editors Martin Uribe and Costas Arkolakis) is the leading field journal across international trade and international macro/finance. A submittable paper must (1) sit in scope, (2) be original in its motivation or modelling structure, (3) carry credible identification or a disciplined structural model, (4) report economic magnitudes, (5) deposit replication code and data in the JIE secure repository, and (6) be packaged for Editorial Manager (fee, 150-word abstract, 1-7 keywords, regular/Short Paper/PRP type, suggested Editor or Co-Editor). This router sequences the jie-* skills to get there.

Default sequence

jie-topic-selection            scope fit + originality gate
        ▼
jie-literature-positioning     stake the contribution vs the frontier
        ▼
jie-identification-strategy    gravity / policy-shock / open-economy design
        ▼
jie-data-analysis              PPML, panels, structural estimation, robustness
        ▼
jie-contribution-framing       originality of motivation or modelling
        ▼
jie-tables-figures             trade/macro exhibits
        ▼
jie-writing-style              abstract (≤150 words), balance, references
        ▼
jie-replication-and-data-policy   Mendeley Data deposit
        ▼
jie-review-process             handling, refereeing, PRP option
        ▼
jie-submission                 Editorial Manager preflight
        ▼
jie-rebuttal                   R&R response letter

Routing logic

• No clear question / unsure it fits trade or macro-finance → jie-topic-selection
• Question set, contribution vague vs literature → jie-literature-positioning
• Causal/structural strategy is the bottleneck → jie-identification-strategy
• Estimation, gravity specification, or robustness work → jie-data-analysis
• Results exist, "so what / what's new" is unclear → jie-contribution-framing
• Tables/figures need building → jie-tables-figures
• Prose/abstract polish → jie-writing-style
• Heading to acceptance, need the data/code deposit → jie-replication-and-data-policy
• Want to understand handling / PRP before submitting → jie-review-process
• Final preflight → jie-submission
• Got an R&R → jie-rebuttal

Router pass for Journal of International Economics

Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the cross-border margin, model or identification source, and replication/data readiness; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: international-economics reviewers who separate trade, open-economy macro, international finance, and sovereign-risk audiences.

• Do the pass: Run the pack as a sequence: fit gate, evidence gate, writing gate, source-map gate, and final output contract; stop when a gate lacks evidence.
• Return a ledger: give claim / evidence / risk / manuscript location rows, so the next agent can edit rather than rediscover the issue.
• Sibling guard: compare against JPubE for public-finance policy, JDE for development settings, JME for monetary macro emphasis; if a sibling owns the contribution, recommend re-routing before polishing format.
• Stop condition: do not give submission-ready advice until the pack's resources/official-source-map.md has been checked for volatile rules and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.

Triage by symptom (where to jump in)

Most manuscripts do not start at step one. Match the loudest current problem to the skill, then return to the default sequence.

• "A referee will say my gravity is biased" → jie-identification-strategy (PPML / multilateral resistance), then jie-data-analysis.
• "The RTA/tariff timing is staggered and I used plain TWFE" → jie-identification-strategy (modern DID), then jie-data-analysis.
• "My structural counterfactual hinges on one elasticity" → jie-data-analysis (elasticity-sweep robustness), then jie-tables-figures (targeted vs untargeted moments).
• "Editors might call it incremental" → jie-contribution-framing (motivation vs modelling axis), backed by jie-literature-positioning.
• "Not sure it's trade or macro-finance" → jie-topic-selection (scope half), which also fixes editor suggestion.
• "Heading to acceptance" → jie-replication-and-data-policy (Mendeley Data deposit) before jie-submission.

Cross-pack guardrail (the trade vs macro-finance split)

Every skill in this pack forces the same first decision: which half of JIE you are in. The split changes the currency of the contribution (a trade elasticity / welfare gain versus a pass-through / cyclicality / default moment), the referee pool, and the (Co-)Editor to suggest. Carry the answer through the whole pipeline; a paper framed in one half's currency but routed to the other reads as a weaker fit than it is.

Output format

【Current stage】(one line)
【Use next】jie-<skill>
【Then】jie-<skill> → jie-<skill>
【Note】JIE-specific reminder (scope / originality / fee / deposit)

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — data and tooling across the pipeline
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — official JIE / Elsevier sources