Journal of Economic Growth (journal-of-economic-growth)

Journal positioning

The Journal of Economic Growth is the field-defining outlet for the economics of growth and long-run development — growth theory, cross-country and historical empirics, institutions, and the deep determinants of why some economies grow and others stagnate. The paper that wins here engages a first-order growth question with a model, a long-run empirical strategy, or a unified account that connects fundamentals to outcomes over decades or centuries. The readership is growth and development economists who care about mechanisms operating at the level of countries, regions, and very long horizons.

This skill is a fit / venue-selection / re-framing tool. It does not replace the journal's current official submission guidelines. Before submitting, re-check the live author instructions on the publisher's own site or submission system.

When to trigger

• The author names Journal of Economic Growth as the target venue.
• A paper addresses long-run growth, institutions, or cross-country divergence and the author is choosing among growth/development venues.
• A development or macro paper needs re-framing so the growth mechanism over the long run, not a short-run estimate, is the contribution.
• The author needs this venue's desk-reject risks and a credible growth/development alternative list before submitting.

Scope & topic fit

• Growth theory: endogenous growth, human-capital and technology models, unified growth theory linking demographic transition, fertility, and takeoff.
• Cross-country growth empirics and the long-run determinants of development: geography, culture, institutions, colonial legacy, deep history.
• Institutions, political economy, and persistence: how fundamentals shape comparative development over long horizons.
• Long-run questions on inequality, demographics, innovation, and structural transformation framed as growth, not as short-run applied micro.

Method & evidence bar

• Cross-country and long-run empirics must confront the well-known identification and robustness pitfalls (omitted variables, reverse causality, fragile regressions); credible instruments, natural experiments, or historical discontinuities are expected.
• Growth theory needs a transparent mechanism and results that generalize, ideally with quantitative or empirical contact with long-run data.
• Persistence and deep-roots claims must rule out confounds and demonstrate the channel, not just a long-distance correlation.
• Data construction over long horizons or across countries is held to high scrutiny; measurement choices must be defensible.

Structure & house style

• The introduction frames the long-run growth question, the mechanism or hypothesis, the empirical/theoretical strategy, and the headline, and says why it matters for understanding development.
• Make the contribution explicit against the closest growth-theory or comparative-development work; connect theory to the empirical design rather than presenting them in isolation.
• The journal uses an unstructured abstract and JEL codes; an online appendix carries data construction, derivations, and robustness.
• Exhibits favor long-run series, cross-country comparisons, and decompositions; the central mechanism should be legible from a key figure or table.

Official-submission checklist

• Before giving submission-ready advice, read ../../resources/source-basis.md and ../../resources/official-source-map.md; start from the official source anchors for this journal family, then cite the current journal-specific page you checked.
• Search the live site for "Journal of Economic Growth submission guidelines / instructions for authors" and follow the current Springer version, not a third-party broker's copy.
• Re-check formatting, abstract/JEL codes, reference style, the online-appendix policy, and the data & code availability requirements.
• Re-check the current replication/data-deposit expectation and any structured-submission requirements on the editorial system.
• If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win.

Pre-submission self-check

• One sentence stating why this changes how we understand long-run growth or comparative development.
• The contribution is stated as mechanism / identification / long-run measurement, not as a significant cross-country coefficient.
• The introduction positions the paper against the current growth-theory / deep-roots / institutions frontier.
• Identification confronts the classic cross-country pitfalls and the long-run channel is demonstrated, not assumed.
• Long-run / cross-country data construction is documented and the replication package is ready.

Common desk-reject triggers

• A fragile cross-country growth regression with no credible source of exogenous variation.
• A short-run applied-micro estimate with no long-run growth or development payoff.
• A deep-roots correlation that cannot rule out obvious confounds or demonstrate the channel.
• A growth-theory extension with no new mechanism and no contact with long-run data.

Re-routing decision

• Micro-development with credible identification in low/middle-income settings → journal-of-development-economics.
• Quantitative macro and business-cycle mechanisms → journal-of-monetary-economics or review-of-economic-dynamics.
• General-interest growth at top-5 ambition → american-economic-review; pure growth theory mechanism → journal-of-economic-theory.
• Broad development practice and policy → world-development; institutions/political-economy with a field focus → the relevant field journal.

Output format

[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] Journal of Economic Growth
[Topic tags] <2–3 closest topics>
[Method/evidence] <does the long-run identification / growth mechanism clear this venue's bar?>
[Top risk] <the single most likely reason for rejection>
[Official items to re-check] <submission system / JEL / online appendix / data construction / replication>
[Re-route suggestion] <if not a fit, a better-matched venue>