ecopol-referee-strategy

Business

Use when preparing an Economic Policy (EP) manuscript for its panel review — the two named discussants and the conference debate that replace standard anonymous refereeing. War-games the discussants; it does not invent evidence or citations.

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Panel & Discussant Strategy (ecopol-referee-strategy)

When to trigger

A paper has been (or is likely to be) invited to present at an EP biannual conference
You need to anticipate the two discussants and the live panel debate before standing up
A coauthor assumes EP runs anonymous refereeing and is preparing the wrong way
The paper is strong academically but you have not stress-tested the policy angle a policy discussant will press
You must decide what to fix before the conference vs. what to commit to revising after

EP review is a panel, not a referee pool — plan for it

This is the most EP-specific skill in the pack, because EP does not run standard double-blind refereeing. Papers are selected by the Managing Editor / Panel, presented at a biannual conference (summer and winter), where two invited discussants — chosen to bring an academic and a policy perspective — act as the referees, debate the paper live in front of the panel and audience, and whose written comments are published alongside the final paper (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准). This changes the strategy in three ways:

Reviewers are named and public. You can (and should) anticipate the specific people and institutions likely to discuss your paper. Their comments will appear in print next to yours — they have an incentive to be sharp.
The debate is live and oral. Unlike a referee letter you answer in writing, you respond in real time. You cannot run a new regression mid-session. Pre-empt, don't defer.
Two perspectives, two failure modes. The academic discussant attacks rigor; the policy discussant attacks relevance, magnitude, and legibility. A paper can pass one and fail the other.

War-game the two discussants

Discussant persona	What they will press	Pre-empt by
Academic (subfield expert)	identification, estimator choice, robustness, "have you tried…"	`ecopol-identification` + `ecopol-robustness` done thoroughly; top 3 objections answered in text
Policy (ministry/central bank/Commission)	magnitude, welfare/cost framing, external validity, "what do I do with this?"	`ecopol-tables-figures` units + a crisp policy bottom line; legible main text

Concretely: name two plausible real discussants for your paper (by subfield and by institution, not necessarily by individual), then read your draft as each of them. Where each would object, decide: fix now, or prepare a one-paragraph live answer.

Pre-conference moves

Build an objection ledger: every anticipated point, its source persona, and your response (fix vs. defend).
Prepare the live answers to the top objections you choose not to pre-fix — a sentence and, ideally, a backup slide/appendix exhibit.
Make the policy bottom line unmissable so the policy discussant cannot say "I don't know what to do with this."
Tighten the central magnitude's robustness — the most common live takedown is "your number isn't stable."
Have the replication package ready (ecopol-replication-package) so a provenance challenge is answerable on the spot.

Checklist

Two plausible discussant personas named (academic subfield + policy institution)
Draft read as each persona; objections logged with fix-vs-defend decisions
Top academic objections (identification/robustness) pre-empted in the main text
Policy bottom line is crisp and unmissable for the policy discussant
Central magnitude's robustness tightened against the "your number moves" attack
Live answers prepared for objections you chose not to pre-fix
Replication package ready for a provenance challenge at the conference
You are not preparing as if for anonymous written refereeing

Anti-patterns

Treating EP review as anonymous refereeing and writing a defensive response letter instead of pre-empting live
Preparing only for the academic discussant and getting blindsided by the policy discussant (or vice versa)
Deferring a known weakness to "we'll address it in revision" when it will be debated live and published
No crisp policy takeaway, so the policy discussant fills the vacuum with skepticism
Ignoring that the discussants' published comments become a permanent part of the record

Output format

【Journal】Economic Policy (EP)
【Skill】ecopol-referee-strategy
【Review model】panel + two named discussants (NOT anonymous refereeing)
【Academic discussant】subfield → top objections → fix/defend
【Policy discussant】institution → top objections → fix/defend
【Objection ledger】top 3 with responses
【Live-answer prep】backup exhibits ready? Y/N
【Next skill】ecopol-submission