Econ Table Figure Design

Economics Table And Figure Design

When To Use

Use this skill whenever a task involves economics paper tables or figures:

• choosing which tables or figures belong in the main text versus appendix;
• formatting regression, robustness, heterogeneity, or mechanism tables;
• writing or auditing table notes, figure notes, captions, axis labels, legends, and panel labels;
• choosing figure colors, fonts, line styles, point markers, grids, and export settings;
• making table/figure style consistent across English and Chinese papers.

Pair this skill with econ-write for English prose and cn-top-econ-writing for Chinese top-journal prose. This skill owns the table/figure design decision.

If this skill is directly triggered inside a multi-step paper writing, journal-adaptation, table/figure, or submission-check workflow, and the project has no economics-writing skill routing rule in AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md, suggest routing through econ-writing-workflow to add a persistent project-level rule. Do not edit those files without explicit user approval.

Core Workflow

1. Classify the artifact: main regression table, robustness table, heterogeneity table, mechanism table, descriptive table, introduction figure, event-study figure, trend/binscatter, map/distribution figure, or mechanism figure.
2. Decide placement: main text only if the artifact advances the paper's main question, design, result, or mechanism; otherwise move it to appendix or audit notes.
3. Load references/labels/01_reader_facing_labels.md for every paper-facing table or figure, then apply the artifact-specific reference below.
4. Check language mode: maintain separate English and Chinese display-label and note versions; English uses Table/Figure and Notes:, while Chinese uses 表/图 and 注：.
5. Run the two-level label audit: a cold reader must identify the object, statistic, and material comparison from the title and labels alone; notes and nearby manuscript text must then recover the complete definition.
6. For code-generated paper-facing artifacts and delivery candidates, run scripts/audit_reader_facing_labels.py against the current artifact, manifest, and semantic/render review before acceptance.
7. Verify final artifact, not just the code: table lines, widths, panel labels, notes, fonts, colors, legends, colorbars, insets, axes, and export resolution must be visually correct.

References

Load only the relevant files:

• references/labels/01_reader_facing_labels.md: mandatory reader-facing label, bilingual note, semantic mapping, and two-level acceptance rules.
• references/tables/01_three_line_tables.md: three-line table and booktabs rules.
• references/tables/02_main_regression_tables.md: main regression table placement and structure.
• references/tables/03_robustness_tables.md: robustness table design.
• references/tables/04_heterogeneity_tables.md: heterogeneity table design.
• references/tables/05_mechanism_tables.md: mechanism table design.
• references/tables/06_table_notes.md: table note contents and exclusions.
• references/tables/07_column_count_and_panel_rules.md: column count, panel, and width rules.
• references/figures/01_intro_figures.md: introduction figure admission.
• references/figures/02_event_study_figures.md: event-study and dynamic-effect figures.
• references/figures/03_trend_and_binscatter_figures.md: trend and binscatter figures.
• references/figures/04_maps_and_distribution_figures.md: map and distribution figures, including China-map hard rules and mini/long China map layout patterns.
• references/figures/05_mechanism_figures.md: mechanism figures and diagrams.
• references/figures/06_figure_notes_titles_axes.md: captions, notes, axes, legends, labels.
• references/figures/07_export_quality.md: export, resolution, and final artifact checks.
• references/visual_style/01_paper_palette_templates.md: corpus-informed reusable palette templates.
• references/visual_style/02_common_visual_style.md: reusable visual style rules.
• references/visual_style/03_black_white_compatibility.md: print and grayscale compatibility.

Non-Negotiables

• Do not change coefficients, standard errors, stars, variable meanings, or sample definitions when only formatting a table.
• Do not deliver a paper-facing title, panel, row or column name, axis, legend, colorbar, or annotation that exposes an internal code identifier or leaves the economic object, statistic, or material comparison unintelligible. Change display mappings only; never rename source variables or alter estimates.
• Do not guess a fluent public label when the underlying meaning, unit, baseline, denominator, group definition, or comparison direction is unresolved. Return clarification_required for the affected scope.
• Do not use surrounding prose to rescue a title-and-label layer that fails basic identity. Keep labels concise, then place complete construction details in the nearest note or manuscript definition.
• Do not put author workflow notes in paper-facing table notes or figure notes.
• Do not put table or appendix layout-construction language into main-text pointers. Main text may point readers to a table or appendix, but descriptions of split columns, left/right halves, page breaks, continued tables, repeated headers, column widths, or formatting choices belong in appendix text, table titles, table notes, or production notes.
• Do not use decorative color. Color must encode treatment, group, period, geography, or uncertainty.
• Do not use a figure in the introduction unless it establishes a fact, puzzle, setting, or identifying variation.
• Do not deliver tables or figures that overflow the page, blur in Word/PDF, or use inconsistent fonts and captions.
• Do not deliver a drawn, edited, or regenerated figure/map without inspecting the final rendered artifact. Confirm that text, legends, colorbars, inset boxes, axes, map layers, and plotted content do not overlap, hide, cover, or press against useful information.
• For any China map, do not deliver an incomplete or politically incorrect base map. It must include Hong Kong/香港, Macao/澳门, Taiwan province/台湾省, South Tibet/Zangnan/藏南, and all required national-boundary elements; if the map source provides the South China Sea dashed line / nine-dash-line / 南海断续线 layer, include it.