Writing Style & House Conventions (jpe-writing-style)

When to trigger

• The draft is wordy, hedged, or buries the result under qualifications
• Prose explains procedure before establishing economic purpose
• Citation style, notation, or formatting is inconsistent with JPE conventions
• This is the late polish stage — identification and model are already sound

The JPE voice

JPE prose is spare, precise, and economics-first. The writing carries an argument; every paragraph advances the economic case. Sentences are declarative and unhedged where the evidence supports the claim. Jargon is minimized; the economic intuition is stated in words before the algebra. A generalist economist should follow the argument; a specialist should find it rigorous.

Register rules:

• Lead with the economics, then the method. "Higher entry costs reduce competition; we estimate this using..." not "We run a regression of price on entry cost."
• State results plainly. Replace "our findings appear to suggest a potentially meaningful relationship" with "entry costs raise prices by X%."
• Active voice for what the paper does; reserve hedging for genuine uncertainty.
• Define notation once, use it consistently; explain each equation's economic content in prose.
• Cut throat-clearing ("It is important to note that...", "In this paper, we will...").