You can achieve the desired effect by modifying the .bst
file, with a small caveat as pointed out by the 'comments' in the aea.bst
file:
Copying of this file is authorized only if either
(1) you make absolutely no changes to your copy, including name, or
(2) if you do make changes, you name it something other than
btxbst.doc, plain.bst, unsrt.bst, alpha.bst, abbrv.bst, agsm.bst,
dcu.bst, cje.bst, aer.bst, or kluwer.bst.
This restriction helps ensure that all standard styles are identical.
If you make the changes as I show below, please save it as a new .bst
file and name it something else, like robinho.bst
perhaps.
In the .bst
file, find (Ctrl+F) the FUNCTION {output.month.year}
entry. This controls the formatting of the month and year output. So to add the desired brackets (note that this will change all of the formatting of the year field to include brackets), replace
FUNCTION {output.month.year}
{
space month plain.space.output
space year plain.comma "year" output.check
}
with
FUNCTION {output.month.year}
{
space month plain.space.output
space "(" year * ")" * plain.comma "year" output.check
}
To influence the location of the year field, go ahead and find (Ctrl+F) in the .bst
file, FUNCTION {article}
. Replace
FUNCTION {article}
{ output.bibitem
author.item.check
format.title.if.not.sortkey.check
crossref missing$
{ space journal italic comma "journal" output.check
output.month.year
output.vol.num.pages
}
{ space format.article.crossref plain.space output.nonnull
comma format.pages plain.space.output
}
if$
fin.entry
}
with
FUNCTION {article}
{ output.bibitem
author.item.check
output.month.year
format.title.if.not.sortkey.check
crossref missing$
{ space journal italic comma "journal" output.check
output.vol.num.pages
}
{ space format.article.crossref plain.space output.nonnull
comma format.pages plain.space.output
}
if$
fin.entry
}
Save as robinho.bst
. (Do so, for the reasons I mentioned at the beginning of this answer.)
Then consider the following MWEB:
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@Article{abeler2010gift,
author = {Abeler, Johannes and Altmann, Steffen and Kube, Sebastian and Wibral, Matthias},
title = {Gift exchange and workers' fairness concerns: When equality is unfair},
year = {2010},
volume = {8},
number = {6},
pages = {1299--1324},
journal = {Journal of the European Economic Association},
publisher = {Wiley Online Library},
}
\end{filecontents*}
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{natbib}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{document}
\section{Test}
Here is an example to cite \citet{abeler2010gift} in text.
\bibliographystyle{robinho}% <-----------
\bibliography{\jobname}% <-----------
% \nocite{*}
\end{document}
which gives the output:

bst
file. To give good answers it is important to have a minimal but working example with bibliography (MWEB) not only to reproduce the problem but also to test our suggestions. And we need as much information as possible what is wrong with the example and what should be different. So please help us to help you.biblatex
+biber
. It can be configured withoutbst
hacking and has several other advantages.biblatex
+biber
instead obbibtex
+natbib
-file also be welcome?article
? (What aboutbook
,incollection
,inbook
etc.?)