Robustness Strategy (ier-robustness)

When to trigger

• The headline number is suspected to hinge on a functional-form choice (CES/log/quadratic) or a single calibrated parameter
• A referee asks "is this robust?" and the draft answers with a mechanical appendix of re-runs
• Inference looks fragile — few clusters, serial correlation, or numerically unstable standard errors
• For a structural paper, the counterfactual moves a lot when you re-anchor an externally-set parameter
• You need to know which robustness checks an IER referee will actually demand vs. which are noise

The IER robustness principle: organize by threat, not by list

IER referees reward robustness that is tied to the load-bearing assumption identified in ier-theory-model/ier-identification. A list of twenty re-runs reads as defensive; three checks that each retire a specific threat to the result read as confident. Build the robustness section as a threat map: