A consequential question
The paper should illuminate a meaningful policy choice, institution, or economic tradeoff—not simply study a setting that happens to involve government.
Editorial work
Editing at AEJ: Economic Policy
A journal should publish rigorous research that teaches us something important about policy—and make the process of developing that research as constructive, fair, and open as possible.
Editorial philosophy
What makes a policy paper matter
My editorial philosophy is to prioritize rigorous research that addresses consequential policy questions and leaves readers with an important new insight. Credible empirical work is essential, but identification alone is not enough: the strongest papers explain what we learn, why it matters, and how the findings change our understanding of policy or economic behavior.
I also see editing as a constructive enterprise—helping authors sharpen promising work, making decisions as fairly and efficiently as possible, and working toward a profession in which important ideas can come from a broader and more inclusive community of scholars.
What I look for
A contribution beyond the design
Strong identification matters, but the contribution is the knowledge it produces: what belief changes, what mechanism becomes clearer, or what policy lesson travels beyond the setting.
Interpretation that matches the evidence
The best papers are clear about what their estimates establish, confront plausible alternatives, and connect the empirical results to an economic argument.
A constructive and open process
Editing should help authors improve promising work while drawing on a broad community of scholars and making space for important ideas regardless of where they originate.
The goal is not simply to publish technically impressive papers. It is to publish research that changes what we understand about economic policy.