Jbf Topic Selection

---
name: jbf-topic-selection
description: Use when deciding whether an empirical or theoretical finance manuscript fits the Journal of Banking & Finance (JBF) scope, especially banking, financial intermediation, financial institutions, capital markets, investments, corporate finance, or financial regulation.
---

# Topic Selection (jbf-topic-selection)

## When to trigger

- A finance paper could go to JBF, JFI, JCF, JFQA, RFS, or a field journal and you need a fit call
- The project is about banks, intermediaries, regulation, liquidity, credit, investments, or capital markets
- You need to decide whether the paper is strong enough for JBF or should be routed elsewhere

## JBF fit bar

JBF is not a generic "any finance paper" outlet. It rewards papers that make a
clear contribution to banking, financial intermediation, institutions, markets,
investments, corporate finance, or regulation. A good JBF topic usually has:

1. **A finance question with institutional content**: banks, lenders, funds,
   markets, regulation, disclosure, risk-taking, liquidity, credit supply, or
   capital allocation.
2. **A credible design or model**: empirical identification, careful data
   construction, or a theoretical mechanism with testable implications.
3. **External relevance**: implications for financial institutions, investors,
   regulators, or corporate financing decisions.
4. **A result that changes a finance reader's prior** rather than only adding a
   new sample, country, or dataset.

## Strong fits

- Bank capital, liquidity, risk-taking, supervision, stress tests, or credit supply
- Financial intermediation, shadow banking, fintech lending, syndicated loans
- Market liquidity, trading, asset pricing with institutional frictions
- Corporate finance questions where banks or financing constraints are central
- Regulation/policy shocks with clear finance mechanisms

## Weak fits

- Pure accounting, management, macro, or development papers where finance is only context
- Asset-pricing factor papers with no JBF-specific institutional contribution
- Country case studies without credible identification or generalizable finance insight
- Routine event studies without an economic mechanism

## Output format

```text
[Question] one sentence
[JBF fit] strong / possible / weak
[Core finance mechanism] ...
[Evidence or model needed] ...
[Closest alternatives] JFI / JCF / JFQA / field journal / other
[Next step] jbf-literature-positioning or reroute
```