If this PDF is supposed to convince me that this 'fake' LaTeX is somehow able to produce results which come close to the real thing it fails rather miserably. Y

If this PDF is supposed to convince me that this 'fake' LaTeX is somehow able to produce results which come close to the real thing it fails rather miserably. Yes, it is set in some variation of Computer Modern [1] and the basic layout sorta-kinda looks like that produced by commonly used LaTeX templates. That said, the PDF distinctly looks like something produced by MS Word due to its rather characteristic (problems with) spacing and kerning. It also does not look the results produced by the AEA template [2] but that might be by choice. Writing the same document using something like LyX is probably easier than using "FaKe LaTeX" with the added advantage of using LaTeX templates to provide a uniform look. The only real advantage of this "FaKe LaTeX" is the possibility to directly use a spread sheet program for tabular data. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Modern https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Modern [2] https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/policies/templates https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/policies/templates