From restud-skills
Builds, sharpens, and stress-tests theoretical models for REStud manuscripts. Organizes proofs for the online appendix and ensures economic payoff visibility.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/restud-skills:restud-theory-modelThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
- The paper is pure theory and needs the contribution framed as a clean result
REStud has unusually deep theory roots for a top-5 journal — it is where optimal income-taxation theory (Mirrlees, "An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation," REStud 38(2), 1971) and the Ramsey–Cass–Koopmans growth model (Cass, "Optimum Growth in an Aggregative Model of Capital Accumulation," REStud 32(3), 1965) were first published. It accepts theory across all fields and treats a new model as a first-class contribution — and with Joint Managing Editors who are themselves theorists (Antonio Penta in mechanism design, Jakub Steiner in information/behavioral economics), pure theory is a first-class citizen here, not a tolerated minority. The bar is technical excellence with a legible economic payoff:
Unlike Econometrica, which can treat heavy formal machinery as the contribution itself, REStud wants the economics to be visible without wading through the apparatus.
Before the setup, state the main result in one sentence of economics ("agents who face X will choose Y, and welfare rises/falls because Z"). The setup then exists to deliver that sentence.
Introduce only the objects the result needs. Defer extensions, generalizations, and special cases to later subsections or the appendix. Define notation once, in a table if it is heavy.
For each proposition: state it formally, then immediately gloss it in words — what economic force drives it, what comparative static it implies, what it rules out. A proposition with no verbal gloss is incomplete by REStud standards.
Keep main-text proofs to a sketch (the key step / the binding constraint). Full, line-by-line proofs go to the online appendix, which REStud uses precisely for this. Number appendix results to match the main text (Proof of Proposition 2, etc.).
If the model disciplines an empirical section, state which assumptions are testable, which parameters are identified by which moments, and which predictions the data will confront. Hand identification details to restud-identification.
【MAIN RESULT (one sentence)】<economic statement>
【PROPOSITIONS】[stated + verbal gloss] x1-2
【KEY ASSUMPTIONS】[standard / minimal / relaxable — for each]
【PROOFS LOCATION】online appendix (sketches in text)
【EMPIRICAL LINK】testable predictions: [...] (or "pure theory")
【NEXT SKILL】restud-robustness (empirical) | restud-tables-figures | restud-writing-style
npx claudepluginhub brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills --plugin restud-skillsSharpens theoretical or structural models for JEEA manuscripts by motivating assumptions, stating results in plain language, testing generality, and ensuring proof hygiene.
Builds and disciplines economic models for EJ manuscripts, from minimal mechanisms for empirics-led papers to full rigor for theory-led papers.
Helps right-size theory for REStat manuscripts by calibrating model depth to discipline the empirical estimate without overshadowing the contribution.