Referee Strategy (ier-referee-strategy)

When to trigger

• The paper is near submission and you want to find the objection that would sink it before a referee does
• You are deciding what to put in the paper vs. hold in reserve for the response
• A draft is strong but you suspect one undefended assumption or one fragile number is the soft spot
• You want to calibrate expectations for IER's review (a rigor-gated, theory-leaning process)

How IER referees read

An IER referee is usually a rigor-minded economist who reads for whether the contribution is correct, general, and tightly linked to its evidence. Unlike a top-5 referee, they are not primarily asking "is this important enough"; they are asking "is this right, and does it teach a general lesson." The most common reasons an IER paper stalls are: an undefended load-bearing assumption, identification that is "calibration in disguise," a headline number that moves under a reasonable perturbation, or a proof that is not airtight. Pre-empt by archetype: