restat-topic-selection

name	restat-topic-selection
description	Use when deciding whether an applied-economics project fits The Review of Economics and Statistics (REStat) rather than AER / AEJ:Applied / J. Econometrics / a field journal, and sharpening the question to REStat's empirical-and-measurement bar. Decides venue fit and frames the question; it does not run the analysis.

Topic Selection & Venue Fit (restat-topic-selection)

When to trigger

• A project is between venues: REStat vs AER / AEJ:Applied vs J. Econometrics vs a field journal
• The question is interesting but you cannot say why it belongs at REStat specifically
• The contribution is a method but you are unsure REStat (applied, not methods-development) is the home
• You have a clean dataset / measurement advance and need to frame it as a REStat question

The REStat fit bar

REStat publishes applied economics and applied econometrics with a long measurement tradition: it wants a substantive economic question answered with credible identification or a careful measurement / data contribution that moves an applied literature. It is empirical-first and broad across fields (labor, public, development, trade, IO, health, environment, urban, macro-empirics), wider than a field journal but more specialized than AER. Two REStat sweet spots that distinguish it from siblings: (1) a clean causal estimate of a parameter an applied literature cares about; (2) a measurement or methods-applied advance — a new index, a better-measured construct, a corrected bias, an estimator put to serious applied use — where the application, not the theorem, is the point.

Fit decision table

Your project	Better home	Why
Credible causal estimate of broad applied interest, careful measurement	REStat	The target
Agenda-setting, general-interest, longer, field-defining	AER	REStat takes more specialized applied work, often shorter
Identification-driven applied micro of broad interest	AEJ: Applied (close sibling)	Overlaps heavily; REStat leans more on measurement + applied econometrics
A new estimator with proofs; method is the contribution	J. Econometrics / Econometrica	REStat is applied — methods must be applied, not developed for their own sake
Sub-field-internal contribution (JOLE / JPubE / JDE)	Field journal	REStat wants wider applied readership
A short, sharp empirical result	REStat Short Paper (≤6000 words, ≤5 exhibits; source map refreshed 2026-06-20)	REStat has a short-format track for compact contributions

The one-sentence test

Write the contribution in one sentence of the form: "We measure/identify [parameter/object] in [setting] using [design/data], and find [estimate], which matters for [applied question]." If the sentence is really "we develop a new estimator and prove its properties," you are at the wrong journal. If it is "we provide a better-measured [X] and show it changes [applied conclusion]," you are squarely in REStat's measurement tradition.

Checklist

• The economic question is applied, substantive, and stated in one sentence
• The contribution is identification or measurement — not a free-standing method
• You can name the closest 3–5 papers and what you add (hand to restat-literature-positioning)
• You have decided Article vs Short Paper (length/exhibit budget)
• Sibling check passed: not better at AER (general-interest) or J. Econometrics (method-first)
• If the contribution is measurement, the construct's validity and its applied payoff are both clear

Anti-patterns

• Pitching a new estimator as the headline contribution (that is J. Econometrics, not REStat)
• A clean estimate with no applied stakes — "identified but uninteresting"
• A measurement contribution with no applied conclusion that changes
• Assuming REStat = AEJ:Applied exactly; REStat weights measurement and applied econometrics more
• Framing as field-internal when the applied parameter has broad interest (sells REStat short)

Worked vignette: a measurement paper finding its home (illustrative)

An author has built a new county-level index of local labor-market tightness from job-posting data and shows it predicts wage growth. Pitched as "a new index," it reads as a data note with no clear home. Re-framed for REStat, the contribution becomes: "We measure local labor-market tightness with less error than the vacancy-to-unemployment proxy, and show that correcting this measurement reverses the estimated slope of the wage curve." Now the measurement advance changes an applied conclusion — squarely REStat's tradition, and stronger than either a bare index (a data note) or a new estimator (J. Econometrics). The same project would be undersold as field-internal at a labor journal and too narrow for AER.

Output format

【Venue verdict】REStat (Article / Short Paper) | redirect to: [AER / AEJ:Applied / J.Econometrics / field]
【One-sentence contribution】measure/identify [object] in [setting] via [design] → [estimate] → matters for [question]
【Contribution type】identification | measurement | applied-econometrics
【Closest prior work】[3–5 papers] (→ restat-literature-positioning)
【Length track】Article | Short Paper (≤6000 words, ≤5 exhibits)
【Next step】restat-literature-positioning