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ier-literature-positioning

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Use when staking an International Economic Review (IER) manuscript's contribution against the frontier and against sibling journals (Econometrica/QE, the top-5, field journals). Sharpens the gap and the delta; it does not invent citations.

International-Economic-Review-Skills/skills/ier-literature-positioning/SKILL.md

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# Literature Positioning (ier-literature-positioning)

## When to trigger

- The intro lists prior work but never says what *this* paper adds that none of them did
- A coauthor cannot state, in one sentence, the delta over the single closest paper
- The draft reads like a strong field-journal paper and you need the general-interest claim to be legible
- You are unsure how to position against the obvious sibling (Econometrica/QE) so the desk editor sees why it is here, not there

## The IER positioning logic

At IER the contribution is almost always **methodological or model-level generality**, so positioning is not "we study X in a new setting" — it is "the existing tool/result fails or is silent *here*, and ours is the first that is both correct and general." Build the position in three layers, from frontier down to the load-bearing delta:

1. **Frontier statement.** Name the 3–6 papers that define the current best answer. For a structural paper, name the canonical model you generalize or discipline; for a method paper, name the incumbent estimator; for theory, name the result you sharpen or overturn.
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