geb-rebuttal

R&R Rebuttal (geb-rebuttal)

When to trigger

• A GEB revision decision has arrived
• Referees question novelty, proof correctness, equilibrium selection, experiment design, or fit
• You need a response letter that respects the Editor-in-Charge process

Triage categories

1. Theory correctness: missing proof step, equilibrium existence/uniqueness, refinement, comparative statics, boundary case, or counterexample.
2. Novelty and positioning: the paper may be a corollary, special case, or incremental extension of known game-theory results.
3. Experimental / numerical evidence: underpowered experiment, unclear treatment, robustness, code, or simulation design.
4. Exposition: notation, game form, timing, payoff matrix, assumptions, or abstract length.
5. Fit: contribution to game theory is not visible enough.

Response strategy

• Start with the editor's synthesis, then handle referee comments in order.
• For proof comments, add the missing lemma/proof or narrow the theorem.
• For novelty comments, compare theorem-by-theorem with the closest prior result.
• For experimental comments, add power, robustness, treatment checks, or clearer implementation details.
• Keep the contribution framed as advancing game theory or its applications, not merely adding a new empirical setting.

Response paragraph pattern

We thank the referee for identifying this issue. We now revise [theorem/model/
experiment] by [change]. The new material appears in [section/table/appendix].
It addresses the concern because [logic tied to equilibrium/proof/design].

Who reads the GEB response

• The Editor in Charge — one of the seven Editors, publicly known to you, with final decision authority — decides whether the revision returns to referees or is settled directly. Open the letter with a half-page summary written for that person: which objections were resolved, and how the main theorem or finding changed (or did not).
• The Advisory Editor who recommended the decision remains anonymous, as do referees; never guess identities or address evaluators by name.
• Under GEB's single-anonymized model, a referee may be an author of the nearest prior result. Meet novelty objections with theorem-level precision, not dismissal — that reader likely knows the prior proof better than you do.
• If a revision weakens or renames a theorem, flag it prominently; an Editor in Charge who finds a silently narrowed result late in the letter stops trusting the rest of it.

Worked micro-example: a novelty objection

Referee: "Proposition 2 appears to be a special case of [prior theorem]."

• Weak reply: "Our setting differs, so the results are not comparable." — asserts without demonstrating, and reads as evasion to a specialist.
• Strong reply: "Proposition 2 is not implied by [prior theorem]: their argument uses quasi-concavity of payoffs (their Assumption A2), which our class violates (new Example 3). Remark 4 now states exactly which step of their proof fails in our environment, and Corollary 1 cites their result where the two genuinely overlap." — concedes the true overlap, isolates the delta, and gives manuscript locations for both.

Revision-package mechanics (Editorial Manager)

• Point-by-point response letter + a marked-changes manuscript alongside clean editable Word or LaTeX source (required at every round)
• Keep theorem/section numbering stable where possible; if numbering moved, give an old-to-new map at the top of the letter
• New simulations or sessions added in revision: update seeds, scripts, and the voluntary data statement (see geb-replication-and-data-policy)
• Abstract still within the 250-word cap after any reframing
• Generative-AI declaration still accurate if AI tools touched the revision

Response pass for Games and Economic Behavior

Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the primitives, equilibrium concept, comparative statics, and proof or experiment boundary; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: game theorists who ask what the model teaches beyond a clever example.

• Do the pass: Separate editor-order changes from referee-specific changes; answer each major objection with manuscript edits plus a short evidence citation, not tone.
• Return a ledger: give claim / evidence / risk / manuscript location rows, so the next agent can edit rather than rediscover the issue.
• Sibling guard: compare against JET for theory abstraction, Theoretical Economics for compact theory contribution, Experimental Economics for experiment-first designs; if a sibling owns the contribution, recommend re-routing before polishing format.
• Stop condition: do not give submission-ready advice until the pack's resources/official-source-map.md has been checked for volatile rules and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.

Output format

[Decision] major revision / minor revision
[Editor priority] ...
[Theory changes] ...
[Experiment/numerics changes] ...
[Positioning changes] ...
[Next step] revise manuscript + response letter