jpam-research-design
Use when defending the causal identification of a Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM) manuscript — RCTs, difference-in-differences / event study, regression discontinuity / kink, instrumental variables, and synthetic control for policy and program evaluation. Strengthens the design and its assumptions; it does not write estimation code.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jpam-research-design --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.
# Research Design & Identification (jpam-research-design) Credible identification is JPAM's **core bar**. The journal evaluates the effects of real policies and programs, so the design must connect the theory of change (`jpam-theory-building`) to evidence a policymaker can trust. State the **estimand**, the **assumptions** that license a causal reading, and **how each is defended** — then rule out the single strongest rival explanation. Selection-on- observables alone rarely clears the bar. ## When to trigger - Specifying or defending identification for a policy evaluation - A reviewer questioned causal claims, parallel trends, the instrument, the discontinuity, or confounding - Choosing among RCT / DiD / RD / IV / synthetic control for a given policy variation - Preparing a pre-analysis plan for a prospective program evaluation ## Design menu (match to the policy variation) - **RCT / field experiment.** The gold standard where feasible. Report randomization unit, balance, power/MDE, take-up, attrition, and ITT vs. TOT/LATE. Pre-register primary outcomes and subgroups. - **Difference-in-differences / event study.** For staggered policy adoption use **heterogeneity-robust estimators
- When to trigger
- Design menu (match to the policy variation)
- Inference & policy-evaluation standards
- The adjudication test (JPAM-specific)
- Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)
- Checklist
- Anti-patterns
- Calibration anchors (hedged)
- Worked micro-example (illustrative)
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the jpam-research-design skill do?
Use when defending the causal identification of a Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM) manuscript — RCTs, difference-in-differences / event study, regression discontinuity / kink, instrumental variables, and synthetic control for policy and program evaluation. Strengthens the design and its assumptions; it does not write estimation code.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jpam-research-design --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.