---
name: jme-contribution-framing
description: Use when sharpening the "what is new and why it matters for macro/policy" claim of a Journal of Monetary Economics (JME) manuscript — turning a result into a first-order monetary-economics contribution that clears a single-blind, two-referee, "up or out" process.
---

# Contribution Framing (jme-contribution-framing)

## When to trigger

- The result exists but the "so what for monetary economics / policy?" is undersold
- The abstract and intro list findings without a single sharp contribution claim
- You need the pitch to survive a desk screen and convince two expert referees
- You want the framing to justify an R&R invitation (the editor's ~50% publication-likelihood bar)

## Why framing is high-stakes at JME

JME has a **distinctive selection funnel**. A first-round decision is **reject or revise-and-resubmit**, and editors invite a resubmission **only when they judge at least a 50% likelihood of ultimate publication** — so an R&R is a strong signal, and a sharp contribution claim is what tips a borderline paper into that bucket. The resubmission is then **"up or out"**: it ends in acceptance or rejection, with no second R&R round. Because review is **single anonymized** with a **minimum of two reviewers**, your framing has to convince specialists who can see your name and will judge the marginal contribution directly.

The contribution should be legible to a macroeconomist or central banker, not just to the narrow sub-field. A JME contribution usually takes one of these shapes: a **new identified fact** about how a shock or policy transmits; a **new mechanism** in a quantitative model that changes a policy conclusion; a **new quantitative magnitude** that overturns or refines a prior estimate; or a **policy counterfactual** that a model now makes credible.

## Framing checklist

- [ ] The contribution is stated in **one sentence** an editor could quote in a decision letter
- [ ] It is positioned as **first-order** for monetary economics / macro, not a marginal tweak
- [ ] The **policy or aggregate lesson** is explicit
- [ ] Empirical and theoretical contributions are each named (JME values both)
- [ ] The claim does **not exceed** what the identification or model supports
- [ ] The abstract (≤100 words, not starting with "This paper" or "We") carries this claim

## Anti-patterns

- A laundry list of findings with no headline contribution
- Over-claiming a global/structural lesson from a local empirical estimate
- Framing the paper for one narrow sub-field when JME wants the broad macro relevance
- Burying the contribution on page 6 instead of in the first paragraph and the abstract


## Contribution pass for Journal of Monetary Economics

Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the main macro object, the identifying variation, and the policy-relevant counterfactual; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: macro and monetary economists who expect the shock, mechanism, and policy margin to be visible early.

- **Do the pass:** Translate the result into who learns what, which mechanism changes, and which alternative explanation is ruled out; keep the contribution narrower than the evidence.
- **Return a ledger:** give `claim / evidence / risk / manuscript location` rows, so the next agent can edit rather than rediscover the issue.
- **Sibling guard:** compare against JIE for open-economy trade/finance emphasis, RED for dynamic macro theory, AEJ Macro for broader field positioning; if a sibling owns the contribution, recommend re-routing before polishing format.
- **Stop condition:** do not give submission-ready advice until the pack's `resources/official-source-map.md` has been checked for volatile rules and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.

## Output format

```
【Contribution】one quotable sentence
【Type】new fact / new mechanism / new magnitude / policy counterfactual
【Policy lesson】one line
【Within design limits?】Y/N (no over-claiming)
【Abstract-ready?】≤100 words, no "This paper"/"We" start? Y/N
【Next step】jme-identification-strategy
```