Builds or tightens conceptual frames or quantitative models for Economic Policy manuscripts. Keeps models minimal, honest, and legible to policy audiences.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/economic-policy-skills:ecopol-theory-modelThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
- The empirical results need a model to map estimates into a welfare or policy-cost statement
EP is not a theory journal. A model earns its place only if it does policy work: it converts estimates into welfare, fiscal cost, or distributional statements; it disciplines a counterfactual policy; or it clarifies a mechanism that the reduced form cannot. The house style is accessible, so the model in the main text should be the smallest model that carries the policy conclusion, with derivations and extensions in the technical appendix. Two tests every EP model must pass:
| The paper's job | Model role | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Estimate a causal policy effect, no welfare claim | none / a one-equation framing | main text, a paragraph |
| Turn effects into welfare or fiscal cost | a small sufficient-statistic / accounting model | main text, few equations; derivation in appendix |
| Simulate a not-yet-enacted reform | a calibrated/estimated structural model | mechanism in main text, full model in appendix |
| Explain a surprising mechanism | a stylized model isolating the channel | main text, deliberately minimal |
【Journal】Economic Policy (EP)
【Skill】ecopol-theory-model
【Model role】framing / welfare-accounting / structural-counterfactual / mechanism
【Necessity test】does the policy claim need the model? Y/N
【Key parameter】θ = <value> (source) ; headline sensitivity to θ
【Welfare framing】whose welfare / objective / what is omitted
【Main-text vs appendix】what stays / what moves to appendix
【Next skill】ecopol-robustness
npx claudepluginhub brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills --plugin economic-policy-skillsGuides building a formal development model for WBER manuscripts: deciding if a model is needed, disciplining the model-to-data link, and running honest counterfactuals.
Builds a transparent welfare, cost-benefit, or optimal-policy framework from reduced-form causal estimates for AEJ: Economic Policy manuscripts.
Builds and disciplines an explicit economic model or mechanism for a Journal of Political Economy manuscript. Provides minimal-model discipline for empirics-led papers and full-model rigor for theory-led or structural papers.