ecj-identification
Use when the empirical identification strategy is the bottleneck for a The Economic Journal (EJ) manuscript — quasi-experimental designs (DID, IV, RDD, event study) or structural estimation. Stress-tests the design and its economic interpretation before drafting tables; it does not write the model from scratch (see ecj-theory-model).
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ecj-identification --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Identification & Economic Interpretation (ecj-identification) ## When to trigger - The empirical core is OLS + controls with no defended causal claim - Staggered DID estimated with TWFE without addressing heterogeneity-bias critiques - IV with a weak first stage or a thin exclusion argument - Structural estimation where the source of parameter identification is not spelled out - A clean causal effect exists but its *economic* interpretation, and its general relevance, are not pinned down ## The EJ bar: credible identification AND broad economic meaning EJ accepts both reduced-form and structural work across all fields, but the bar has two parts that must *both* clear: 1. **Credible identification** — the estimate isolates the causal/structural object you claim, to a standard a demanding referee accepts. 2. **Economic meaning of broad interest** — the estimate maps onto a parameter or margin that economists *outside the subfield* care about. A precisely identified but parochial effect is a field-journal paper here, because EJ's defining bar is broad relevance. Reduced-form work should connect to a model or mechanism (see `ecj-theory-model`); structural work must make its identific
- When to trigger
- The EJ bar: credible identification AND broad economic meaning
- Design priority (strong → acceptable)
- Branch paths
- Branch A — DID / event study
- Branch B — IV
- Branch C — RDD
- Branch D — Structural estimation
- Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)
- Checklist
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
What does the ecj-identification skill do?
Use when the empirical identification strategy is the bottleneck for a The Economic Journal (EJ) manuscript — quasi-experimental designs (DID, IV, RDD, event study) or structural estimation. Stress-tests the design and its economic interpretation before drafting tables; it does not write the model from scratch (see ecj-theory-model).
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ecj-identification --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.