Welcome to another rules roundtable, a series of posts for the /r/economics mods to explain how we enforce the rules and the underlying reasons motivating them. Today we will be look at Rule II which sets the off-topic standards for submissions in the same way that Rule VI sets the off-topic standards for comments.

Why do we need a rule around submissions?

/r/economics is an economics subreddit. While this may sound obvious we receive many submissions which are not related to economics in any way. To keep the subreddit on track with its core mission we remove comments that have nothing to do with economics. This keeps the sub free of clutter. Attention and visibility are like all things are scarce and removing off-topic threads can help focus the efforts on the sub on this core mission. The mods have also noticed that off-topic threads typically have comment sections that are full of rule breaking comments, contain low quality discussion, and draw frequent complaints from users. Good submission rules therefore establish the foundation for good discussions.

What is Economics Anyway...

Economics is a discipline that touches on a broad range of topics which means it can be hard to come up with a firm definition of what economics is. What all economics has in common though is an attention to the preferences and incentives individuals face and how these factors get translated into the production, consumption and distribution of goods and services. It is important to note that when we say goods and services we don't just mean the things that can bought in stores, but also important non-market goods such as environmental quality or health. When judging if submissions are on-topic we will look for one of the following things:

• Written by an Economist: Generally this means someone engaged in the community of economists as a whole. In particular we think about an economist as 1) People doing traditional economic research, either in a university setting or at a public institution like the Fed or Treasury. 2) People in research, or research like positions at think-tanks or private firms (eg. The McKinsey Institute, research section of a Bank or tech company ect...)

• Engages in Economic Analysis: This means that the article brings about concepts from economic theory to analyze or explain a topic in the news or some other phenomena.

• Cites Economic Research: The article makes clear reference to economic research or interviews the authors of relevant research.

Removing A Source Doesn't Mean It Is Bad

Often when we remove a source we don't mean to indicate that it is not worth discussing. What it does indicate is that is not consistent with the focus of the subreddit. We would encourage you to find other communities that may be better fits for the article such as /r/business , /r/investing and subreddits for other related topics.

A Note on Stock Markets and Business News

Article on stock markets as well as news about particular firms will generally be removed under RII. Why? The stock market is not very indicative of the health of the economy as a whole and short term movements generally carry very little information. Likewise, as in the case of personal anecdotes, the experiences of one firm often can teach us very little as we are unable to understand how representative the firms experience is. There are some exceptions. For instance, articles that use the story of a firm to motivate a broader discussion of some economic topic. However, these topics will need to clear a high bar to be approved.

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Previous Rule Roundtables

Rules Roundtable #1 Rule VI and Offtopic Comments