jde-identification-strategy
Use when the causal identification strategy is the bottleneck for a Journal of Development Economics (JDE) manuscript — RCT/field experiment, DID, IV, RDD in low- and middle-income settings. Stress-tests the design against development-economics empirical norms before tables are drafted.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jde-identification-strategy --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 Strategy (jde-identification-strategy) ## When to trigger - The empirical core is OLS + controls with an undefended causal claim - A DID uses two-way fixed effects (TWFE) on staggered timing without modern estimators - An IV's first stage is weak or the exclusion restriction is unargued - An RCT lacks a pre-analysis plan, balance, or attrition analysis - You are unsure your design clears the JDE causal bar ## The JDE identification bar Development economics has been a leader in the **credibility revolution**, and JDE referees apply a demanding identification standard while respecting that field settings are messy. The implicit credibility ranking (strong → weaker): 1. **RCT / field experiment** with a registered pre-analysis plan, balance, and attrition handling — the modal credible design in modern development micro 2. **Sharp/fuzzy RDD** at a clean program or eligibility threshold (common in targeted transfer and education programs) 3. **DID / event study** off a credibly exogenous policy or shock, using modern estimators 4. **IV** with a strong first stage and a defended, institutionally-grounded exclusion restriction 5. **Selection-on-observables / matching** —
- When to trigger
- The JDE identification bar
- Branch paths
- RCT / field experiment (the development workhorse)
- DID / event study
- IV
- RDD
- Worked micro-example (illustrative)
- Credibility pushback and the design-level answer
- Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
What does the jde-identification-strategy skill do?
Use when the causal identification strategy is the bottleneck for a Journal of Development Economics (JDE) manuscript — RCT/field experiment, DID, IV, RDD in low- and middle-income settings. Stress-tests the design against development-economics empirical norms before tables are drafted.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jde-identification-strategy --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.