| name | jole-tables-figures |
| description | Use when designing tables and figures for a Journal of Labor Economics (JOLE) manuscript under the journal's word economy — each full-page table or figure counts as 500 words toward the ~20,000-word limit. Makes exhibits earn their space; it does not run the analysis. |
Tables & Figures (jole-tables-figures)
When to trigger
- The main table has many columns and the paper is getting long
- You are unsure whether a result should be a table, a figure, or appendix-only
- Exhibits are pushing the manuscript toward or past the word limit
- Notes under tables/figures are not self-contained
JOLE's exhibit economy (this is the distinctive constraint)
JOLE does not normally publish articles exceeding 20,000 words, and it counts a full-page table or figure as 500 words toward that total. That rule changes how you design exhibits: every full page of tables/figures costs you 500 words of text. A paper with ten full-page exhibits has spent 5,000 words before a single sentence. So the discipline is:
- Promote only the headline exhibits to the body. The 1–3 results that carry the paper become main tables/figures; everything else goes to the online appendix.
- Consolidate. Combine related specifications into one well-organized table rather than several; a tight panel beats five thin ones.
- Prefer a figure when it carries the result more efficiently (event-study plots, RDD discontinuity plots, binscatters, wage-profile and decomposition charts) — but remember a full-page figure still costs 500 words, so it must replace, not duplicate, text.
- Self-contained notes. Each exhibit's note states the sample, the estimator, the SE clustering, and the units, so a referee can read it without hunting through the text.
Designing the main exhibits
- Lead exhibit = the result. The single table or figure a labor referee should remember (e.g., the main treatment effect with its event-study, or the decomposition).
- Units and magnitudes visible. Report effects in interpretable labor units (percent, percentage points, log points, dollars) with CIs.
- No chartjunk. No 3D, minimal color, confidence bands shown; vector output (PDF/EPS) for print.
- Numbering and call-outs in order. Every exhibit is referenced in the text in sequence.
- Budget the pages. Tally how many full pages of exhibits you have and convert at 500 words/page; trim against the ~20,000-word cap.
Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)
Generate exhibits from the fitted result, not by retyping numbers. Full map:
execution-with-mcp. JOLE is labor economics — the home of clean identification; DiD/IV/RDD and selection corrections are the binding constraint.
- Tables:
etable (multi-model) or did_summary_to_latex straight from the result_id.
- Figures:
plot_from_result / enhanced_event_study_plot / event_study_table —
axis units and the SE/clustering note baked in.
- Every note names the estimator + clustering and states the magnitude in interpretable units.
See a full fitted-result → exhibit chain in the JF execution walkthrough.
Checklist
Anti-patterns
- A 12-column kitchen-sink main table that eats the word budget
- Many thin tables where one consolidated panel would do
- A full-page figure that merely restates a paragraph (it still costs 500 words)
- Notes that force the referee back into the text to learn the sample or SEs
- Forgetting that exhibits count toward the length cap and overrunning it
- Effects reported as bare coefficients with no interpretable units
Output format
【Headline exhibits】[1–3] in body, rest to appendix? [Y/N]
【Page budget】full pages of exhibits × 500 words = ___ ; within cap? [Y/N]
【Consolidation】related specs combined? [Y/N]
【Figure vs. table】each result in the more efficient form? [Y/N]
【Notes】self-contained (sample/estimator/SE/units)? [Y/N]
【Next step】jole-writing-style
