brycewang-stanford Topic Selection (jfi-topic-selection)
When to trigger
- Deciding whether a project fits the Journal of Financial Intermediation (JFI) at all
- Choosing whether the paper's spine is a model (theory) or an empirical design
The JFI fit bar
JFI is an Elsevier journal on banking, financial intermediation, and the economics of financial institutions and markets, publishing both theory and empirics. The decisive question is: is an intermediary or financial-institution mechanism first-order? Strong fits put banks, lenders, dealers, insurers, or other intermediaries — and the frictions they resolve or create (information asymmetry, monitoring, liquidity transformation, capital and regulation, relationship lending) — at the center.
A paper is off-fit if intermediation is incidental: a pure asset-pricing result, a corporate-finance study where banks are just a control, or a macro paper with no institutional channel. Redirect those to a general finance or field journal unless you can make the intermediation mechanism the load-bearing contribution.
Theory vs. empirics (decide early)
- Theory-led: the contribution is a model of intermediary behavior or a market friction. Plan around assumptions, propositions, and proof exposition (see jfi-identification-strategy) and a numerical example (see jfi-data-analysis).
- Empirics-led: the contribution is a credibly identified fact about banks/credit. Plan around a causal design and bank/loan-level data (see jfi-identification-strategy, jfi-data-analysis).
This choice shapes how almost every later skill is applied, so make it now.
Fit decision table
| Project | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Relationship lending and information capture in a credit register | Strong | Core intermediation mechanism |
| Bank capital shock transmission to credit and firms | Strong | Regulation working through the intermediary balance sheet |
| Deposit competition and franchise value | Strong | Liability-side intermediation economics |
| Fintech lenders displacing bank credit | Strong if the displacement runs through screening/monitoring | The intermediation contrast must do the work |
| Bank stock-return anomalies | Redirect | Asset pricing wearing bank clothing |
| Firm capital structure with bank debt as one covariate | Redirect | Banks incidental to the question |
| Macro credit cycles with no institutional channel | Redirect | No intermediary mechanism to test |
The JBF boundary test
A quick differentiator from the Journal of Banking and Finance, JFI's closest neighbor: JBF accommodates broad empirical banking — institutional documentation, cross-country performance, risk-management practice. JFI expects the paper to test, discipline, or extend an intermediation mechanism. Ask: "which theory of intermediation does my result speak to?" If the honest answer is "none, but the facts are useful," the project is likely a better JBF match; if a named friction does the work, you are on JFI ground.
Worked fit check (illustrative)
A draft shows banks with older depositor bases raise deposit rates 15bp less after policy hikes. As pure documentation: borderline at best. Re-anchored to the deposit-franchise mechanism — market power over inattentive depositors funds stable long-duration lending, with the asset-side prediction then tested — the same data become a strong JFI fit. At this venue, topic selection is mechanism selection.
Rescue moves for a borderline verdict, in order of preference: (1) find the intermediation prediction your setting can uniquely test and promote it to the headline; (2) add the heterogeneity cut (bank capital, relationship intensity, depositor stickiness) that separates the intermediary channel from alternatives; (3) if neither exists, redirect early — before the non-refundable submission fee, not after. Run this check again whenever the headline result changes during analysis; fit verdicts drift.
Anti-patterns
- Submitting an asset-pricing or corporate-finance paper where intermediation is decorative
- Leaving "theory or empirics?" unresolved, producing a paper that is thin on both
- Choosing JFI only because of fit with a sub-literature without a clear intermediary mechanism
Output format
【Intermediation mechanism】<the first-order bank/intermediary channel>
【Fit verdict】strong / borderline / redirect-elsewhere
【Paper type】theory-led / empirics-led / both
【Next skill】jfi-literature-positioning