jfi-contribution-framing

Contribution Framing (jfi-contribution-framing)

When to trigger

• Drafting the abstract and the contribution paragraph of the introduction
• A reader cannot tell, in one sentence, why intermediaries are central to your result

The JFI framing bar

Because JFI runs an active desk-rejection screen, the contribution must be legible in the abstract and first pages. Frame it as a statement about intermediation, not finance in general. A strong frame names four things:

1. Institution / intermediary — banks, lenders, dealers, insurers, the specific actor.
2. Friction — the economic problem the intermediary faces or resolves (information asymmetry, monitoring, liquidity transformation, capital constraints, agency).
3. Mechanism — how that friction produces the result; the causal or theoretical channel.
4. Consequence — why it matters for credit, stability, welfare, or policy.

"Banks do X" is weak; "Because of friction F, intermediary type I responds via mechanism M, with consequence C for credit/stability" is a JFI contribution.

Empirical vs. theory framing

• Empirical: lead with the identified fact and the mechanism it reveals, then the broader lesson for intermediation — not a coefficient in search of a story.
• Theory: lead with the friction and the new prediction the model generates; state the testable implication so the contribution is not purely formal.

Worked vignette: framing a capital-shock transmission paper

A hypothetical submission (all numbers illustrative): using a supervisory credit register, the authors find that banks hit by a 1-percentage-point capital shortfall after a stress-test redesign cut credit to the same firm by 3.4% more than unaffected banks (firm×time fixed effects), with the cut twice as large for relationship borrowers lacking alternative lenders.

• Weak frame: "We study the effect of stress tests on bank lending." No friction named; could run in any banking outlet.
• Better, still short: "Capital regulation reduces credit supply." Mechanism missing — why capital, and why these borrowers?
• JFI-ready: "Because raising equity is costly (friction), constrained banks deleverage where their information monopoly is strongest (mechanism — relationship borrowers cannot switch), so capital regulation taxes precisely the borrowers intermediation theory says banks exist to serve (consequence)."
• The last frame clears the screen because it connects an identified estimate to a Bhattacharya–Thakor-style account of what intermediaries do — that dialogue with intermediation theory is the JFI bar.

Frame-strength ladder for the desk screen

Rung	The abstract reads as	Likely JFI desk outcome
1	A correlation about banks	High desk-reject risk
2	An identified effect, mechanism unnamed	Vulnerable: "fine design — what is the intermediation lesson?"
3	Effect + named friction + channel	Survives triage; referees then test the channel
4	Rung 3 plus theory dialogue (which intermediation model is disciplined or rejected)	Strongest JFI frame

Aim for rung 3 at minimum; reach rung 4 whenever the literature offers competing intermediation models your estimate can separate.

Referee pushback on the frame, and the JFI fix

• "This could be a demand-side story" → re-anchor the claim to the supply channel your within-firm design isolates, and say so in the abstract, not only in Section 5.
• "Banks are incidental here" → make the intermediary's balance sheet or information role load-bearing, or concede the paper belongs at a general-finance outlet.
• "The welfare claim outruns the design" → downgrade the consequence from "welfare" to the credit, stability, or real-outcome margin the design actually measures.

As a calibration (reading-based, not a rule): accepted JFI introductions usually state the friction and mechanism within the first two paragraphs and the headline magnitude by paragraph three; the contribution paragraph names what the result teaches intermediation theory, not just what the regression found.

Anti-patterns

• A contribution that would fit any finance journal (no intermediary mechanism)
• Burying the mechanism past page 3, where the desk screen never reaches it
• Over-claiming policy or welfare beyond what the design or model supports
• Listing results without saying what they teach about intermediation

Output format

【Institution】<the intermediary>
【Friction → Mechanism】<problem → channel>
【Consequence】<why it matters>
【One-sentence contribution】<the abstract-ready claim>
【Next skill】jfi-tables-figures