---
name: jfi-topic-selection
description: Use when working on Journal of Financial Intermediation (JFI) manuscripts to test whether the paper is centrally about banking and financial intermediation — whether an intermediary mechanism is load-bearing, how it differs from a Journal of Banking and Finance fit, and whether to lead with theory or empirics — before investing in the draft.
---

# 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
```