aejmic-literature-positioning

Literature Positioning (aejmic-literature-positioning)

When to trigger

• The literature review lists papers but never says what is new here
• The contribution is stated relative to "the literature" in the abstract rather than to a specific closest result
• A referee may ask "how is this different from [Author, Year]?" and you do not have a crisp answer
• The claim of novelty is broader than the result actually supports

Positioning a theory result

For a theory-first journal, positioning is theorem-relative: identify the closest existing result and state precisely the delta — what your model relaxes, generalizes, characterizes, or overturns. Vague "we contribute to the literature on X" framing is the most common avoidable weakness. AEJ: Micro referees are subject-matter experts; they know the nearest theorem and will measure your delta against it.

How to find and state the delta

1. Name the closest result, not a vague body of work: "Closest is [Author, Year], who shows P under assumptions A. We…"
2. Classify the delta: a weaker assumption (more general), a new environment (broader scope), a full characterization where prior work had a special case, an impossibility where prior work conjectured possibility, or a mechanism prior work missed.
3. Right-size the claim: state what you do not improve on, so the genuine advance is credible.
4. Map the neighborhood: 3–6 anchor results, each with one clause saying how you relate. Avoid citation padding.

Sibling-literature discipline

Position against the theory frontier (mechanism design, IO theory, information economics, decision theory…), not against empirical applied-micro papers — that signals an AEJ: Applied framing. If your result has an empirical or experimental companion literature, cite it as motivation, not as the bar your contribution clears.

The delta taxonomy (which kind do you have?)

Delta type	What it looks like	What the reader must see
Weaker assumption	Same conclusion, fewer/looser hypotheses	The dropped assumption named; that the old proof breaks without your argument
New environment	Old mechanism, richer setting (search, networks, dynamics)	What the new setting adds that the old result could not capture
Full characterization	Prior work had a special case or sufficiency only	Both directions; the boundary of the characterization
Impossibility / no-go	Prior work conjectured or assumed possibility	The exact obstruction and which primitive causes it
New mechanism	Same phenomenon, different economic force	Why the new force is the right explanation