jeea-tables-figures

Tables & Figures (jeea-tables-figures)

When to trigger

• Tables are dense, over-decorated, or still carry significance asterisks
• A figure is the better vehicle for the headline result but you are leading with a table
• Notes are missing the sample, units, inference, or estimator
• Exhibits are dumped at the end rather than supporting the argument

The JEEA exhibits bar

JEEA is general interest, so exhibits must be legible to an economist outside the subfield: the headline result should be readable from one table or one figure with its note alone. JEEA follows the standard modern-economics presentation discipline — report standard errors / confidence sets, not significance asterisks or boldface for significance — and the final accepted version is copyedited to OUP house style, so do not over-format the submission. Lead with the exhibit that carries the claim; everything else supports it.

Table craft

• Three-line tables (booktabs): top/mid/bottom rules only; no vertical rules, no shading for emphasis.
• No significance stars. Report point estimate and standard error (or confidence set) beneath it; never ***/**/* or boldface to denote significance.
• Self-contained notes: sample and period, unit of observation, dependent variable and units, estimator, inference (clustering level), and the number of observations/clusters.
• One claim per table. The main table should let a reader recover the headline magnitude and its uncertainty without the text.
• Structural fit tables: show targeted vs. untargeted moments (data vs. model) so identification is visible.

Figure craft

• Event-study plots with confidence bands and a visible pre-period (flat leads = the parallel-trends evidence).
• Model-fit overlays (data vs. simulated moments) and counterfactual curves with uncertainty bands for structural work.
• Vector output (.eps/.pdf) preferred for final files; raster at ≥300 dpi; readable axis labels and units; colorblind-safe palettes; no chartjunk.
• Prefer a figure over a table when the shape of the result (dynamics, heterogeneity, distribution) is the point.

Checklist

• No significance asterisks or boldface-for-significance anywhere
• Standard errors / confidence sets reported beneath estimates
• Each table/figure note is self-contained (sample, units, estimator, inference, N)
• Headline result recoverable from one exhibit + its note
• Event-study / fit / counterfactual figures carry uncertainty bands
• Three-line tables; vector figures at publication quality
• Exhibits support the argument in-text, not dumped at the end

Exhibits by paper type

• Applied micro / development: lead with the event-study figure (dynamics + parallel-trends evidence) or a single main-effect table; relegate the specification grid to the online appendix.
• Theory: a figure of the key comparative static or a numerical example can make an abstract proposition concrete; do not over-tabulate.
• Structural / quantitative: a model-fit table (targeted vs. untargeted moments) plus a counterfactual figure with uncertainty bands; a parameter-estimate table with standard errors.
• Macro / finance: impulse-response or factor figures with confidence bands; avoid factor-zoo tables no generalist can parse.

Worked vignette (illustrative)

A draft reports the main result in a 9-column regression table with three rows of asterisks and bolded coefficients. A general-interest referee cannot find the headline number. The JEEA-grade fix: move seven columns to the online appendix, keep the two that carry the claim, replace asterisks with the point estimate and its standard error in parentheses, and add a self-contained note (sample, period, unit, dependent variable in levels, clustering at the state level, N and number of clusters). The headline magnitude is now readable from the table alone — and the event-study figure, promoted to the main text, shows the dynamics the table cannot.

Anti-patterns

• Significance stars or bolded "significant" coefficients (against JEEA house norms)
• A table no one can read without hunting through three paragraphs of text
• Notes missing the clustering level, units, or sample definition
• Leading with a regression table when an event-study figure tells the story better
• Over-formatting to mimic the typeset journal style the copyeditor will apply anyway
• Counterfactual or fit figures with no uncertainty representation
• A factor-zoo or specification-grid table dumped in the main text with no headline exhibit

Output format

【Headline exhibit】[table N / figure N] — recoverable from its note? [Y/N]
【Significance display】SEs/CIs only, no asterisks? [Y/N]
【Notes complete】sample/units/estimator/inference/N? [Y/N]
【Figures】event-study / fit / counterfactual with bands? [Y/N]
【Next step】jeea-writing-style