Literature Positioning (ier-literature-positioning)

When to trigger

• The intro lists prior work but never says what this paper adds that none of them did
• A coauthor cannot state, in one sentence, the delta over the single closest paper
• The draft reads like a strong field-journal paper and you need the general-interest claim to be legible
• You are unsure how to position against the obvious sibling (Econometrica/QE) so the desk editor sees why it is here, not there

The IER positioning logic

At IER the contribution is almost always methodological or model-level generality, so positioning is not "we study X in a new setting" — it is "the existing tool/result fails or is silent here, and ours is the first that is both correct and general." Build the position in three layers, from frontier down to the load-bearing delta:

1. Frontier statement. Name the 3–6 papers that define the current best answer. For a structural paper, name the canonical model you generalize or discipline; for a method paper, name the incumbent estimator; for theory, name the result you sharpen or overturn.
2. The gap that matters. State precisely what the frontier cannot do — a knife-edge assumption, an estimator that breaks under realistic conditions, a mechanism left unmodeled. The gap must be consequential, not cosmetic.
3. Your delta, made falsifiable. One sentence: "We are the first to [result] under [weaker/realistic condition], which [the frontier] could not." A referee should be able to check the claim.

Drawing the sibling boundaries (this is where IER papers get mis-filed)