jeea-robustness
GitHub针对JEEA稿件，按威胁类型组织稳健性检验。涵盖遗漏变量、估计偏差、工具变量、推断错误等八大类，强调结果稳定性而非显著性，确保符合期刊对可重复性和一般兴趣审稿人的高要求。
Trigger Scenarios
Install
npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill jeea-robustness -g -y
SKILL.md
Frontmatter
{
"name": "jeea-robustness",
"description": "Use when the headline result of a Journal of the European Economic Association (JEEA) manuscript needs to be shown stable to specification, sample, inference, and (for theory) assumption perturbations. Organizes robustness around the actual threats a general-interest referee will raise; it does not design the main result."
}
Robustness (jeea-robustness)
When to trigger
- The main estimate moves when a referee imagines a different specification
- Inference rests on assumptions (homoskedasticity, few clusters) you have not stressed
- A theory result might hinge on one functional form or parameter range
- You have a pile of "robustness tables" but no organizing logic
The JEEA robustness bar
A general-interest referee does not want a wall of extra columns — they want to know the headline result survives the threats that matter. Organize robustness by threat to the claim, not by "more specifications." Each robustness exhibit should answer a specific objection a JEEA referee would raise, and the headline magnitude should be stable in sign and roughly in size across the credible perturbations. Report everything as standard errors / confidence sets, never significance asterisks, and ensure every robustness check is reproducible for the JEEA Data Editor check.
Robustness organized by threat
| Threat to the claim | Robustness response |
|---|---|
| Omitted variables / selection | Oster (2019) δ and bounded bias; alternative controls; coefficient-stability discipline |
| Estimator bias (staggered DID) | heterogeneity-robust estimators (CS / SA / BJS / dCDH) as the main result, not an aside |
| Weak / invalid instrument | first-stage strength; Anderson–Rubin / weak-IV-robust sets; over-ID where available |
| Wrong inference | clustering at the right level; wild-cluster bootstrap with few clusters; randomization inference |
| Sample / outliers | winsorize / trim; alternative samples and time windows; influential-observation checks |
| Functional form | alternative specifications; semiparametric or flexible controls |
| Multiple hypotheses | Romano–Wolf / FDR adjustment when many outcomes/subgroups |
| Theory: assumption fragility | relax the driving assumption; show the result degrades smoothly, not knife-edge |
Principles
- One threat, one exhibit, one sentence. Each robustness check maps to a named objection and a one-line conclusion.
- Main result = the credible estimator. Do not bury the heterogeneity-robust DID in an appendix while TWFE leads.
- Stability, not significance-chasing. The point is the magnitude holds, not that it stays starred (and there are no stars at JEEA).
- Pre-empt, don't pad. Cut robustness checks no referee would ask for; add the ones
jeea-referee-strategyflags.
Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)
Run the battery, don't just enumerate it. Full map:
execution-with-mcp. JEEA is a general-interest European economics flagship; credible identification across applied fields.
- Many outcomes / specifications:
romano_wolf(step-down FWER) orbenjamini_hochberg. - OVB sensitivity:
oster_delta/sensemakr. - Inference:
wild_cluster_bootstrap(few clusters),twoway_cluster/conley. - Re-fit off one handle:
audit_result(result_id)lists missing checks + the exactsuggest_functionfor each. - Exhibits:
etable/did_summary_to_latexfrom the handle — no retyped numbers.
Decisive checks in the body, exhaustive battery in the appendix. JF execution walkthrough.
Checklist
- Robustness organized by threat, each tied to a specific referee objection
- Heterogeneity-robust estimator is the main result where staggered timing applies
- Inference stressed: clustering level justified; wild-cluster bootstrap if few clusters
- Selection/OVB addressed (Oster δ or design-based defense)
- Multiple-testing handled when many outcomes/subgroups
- Theory: driving assumption relaxed; result shown not knife-edge
- Every check reproducible; no significance asterisks anywhere
Worked vignette (illustrative)
A draft has fifteen robustness columns and a referee still calls the result fragile. The problem is that none of the fifteen addresses the actual threat — selection into treatment. The JEEA-grade fix cuts the padding and adds the three checks the threat demands: an Oster δ showing the bias needed to overturn the result exceeds 1, a placebo on a group the mechanism predicts should show no effect, and wild-cluster inference because there are only twelve treated units. One paragraph, three exhibits, threat neutralized — far more persuasive than fifteen columns of "add another control."
Main-text vs. online-appendix split
JEEA papers carry an online appendix, so use it to keep the main text focused: the headline robustness (the credible estimator, the key placebo, the inference fix) belongs in the main text; the exhaustive grid (every control set, every sample window) belongs in the appendix, referenced in one sentence. Do not bury the result-deciding check in the appendix, and do not pad the main text with checks no referee asked for.
Anti-patterns
- A dozen robustness columns with no statement of which threat each addresses
- TWFE as the headline with the modern estimator hidden in the online appendix
- "Robust to controls" while the real threat (selection, weak IV) is untouched
- Reporting that results "remain significant" instead of that the magnitude is stable
- Robustness checks that quietly change the sample or estimand without flagging it
- The result-deciding robustness check buried in the online appendix
Output format
【Threats addressed】[OVB / estimator / weak-IV / inference / sample / form / MHT / assumption]
【Main result estimator】[the credible one, not TWFE-only]
【Stability verdict】[sign + magnitude hold? Y/N, with the range]
【Inference】[clustering level; wild-cluster/RI if needed]
【Residual fragility】[what still moves the result]
【Next step】jeea-tables-figures
Version History
- 1839142 Current 2026-07-05 14:01
