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qje-writing-style

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Use when polishing prose, abstract, and introduction for a Quarterly Journal of Economics (QJE) manuscript so the big idea lands fast for a general-interest reader. Reflects QJE's house style — long, ambitious, narrative-driven empirical papers. Polishes exposition; it does not change results or design.

Quarterly-Journal-of-Economics-Skills/skills/qje-writing-style/SKILL.md

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# Writing Style (qje-writing-style)

## When to trigger

- The prose buries the idea; a reader cannot find the contribution quickly
- The abstract does not state the finding, or leads with method
- The introduction wanders before reaching the question and the result
- Sentences are technical-jargon-dense for a general-interest audience

## QJE house style: ambitious, narrative, long

QJE is read across all of economics, and its papers are characteristically **long, narrative-driven, and ambitious** — there is **no hard page limit**, and an extensive online appendix is the norm. That freedom is a trap: the *body* must still make a **big idea legible to a smart non-specialist** in the first two pages, with the heavy machinery pushed to the appendix. The model is the canonical QJE empirical-micro paper (e.g., Chetty, Hendren, Kline & Saez on mobility, QJE 2014): a sharp question stated plainly, a clean source of variation, a memorable headline number, and a broad lesson — all before the reader hits the data section. Format facts that shape the writing: the **abstract is short (~150 words)**, citations are **author-date (Chicago)**, and double-blind review means the prose must not out the authors. Late-stage skill: only polish once identification and results are settled.

## The introduction arc (QJE template)
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