---
name: govern-tables-figures
description: Use when building tables and figures for a Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions manuscript so exhibits carry comparative/institutional arguments across countries and are self-contained, accessible, and grayscale-legible. Designs cross-national tables, regression tables, coefficient/event-study plots, and maps; it does not run the analysis.
---

# Tables & Figures (govern-tables-figures)

In a *Governance* paper the exhibits are where a comparative reviewer checks whether the institutional
claim actually **travels**. A single-country result dressed up as a wall of coefficients reads as
parochial; a clean cross-national table or a coefficient plot that shows where the effect holds and
where it does not reads as a contribution to how the state governs. With a working cap of **≤ 9,000
words excluding citations/bibliography** (检索于 2026-06；以官网为准), every exhibit must earn its place,
and the heavy robustness grids belong in the supplementary file, not the article.

## When to trigger

- Designing the main results table/figure or the key descriptive comparative exhibit
- Showing cross-country / cross-institution variation (a map, a small-multiples panel, a forest plot)
- Deciding what stays in the article vs. moves to supplementary material
- A reviewer found an exhibit unclear, single-country-parochial, or not self-contained

## Principles

1. **Self-contained.** A reader understands each exhibit from its caption, column/axis labels, and note
   alone — units, sample, time window, country/case set, N, and what the estimate is. State the
   estimand, not just "Model 3."
2. **Make the comparison visible.** The point of a *Governance* exhibit is usually the contrast across
   countries, regimes, policy domains, or institutional types. Order rows/panels by the institutional
   logic (e.g., by state capacity, by Westminster vs. consensus), not alphabetically, so the pattern
   reads off the page.
3. **Figures over dense tables for effects.** Coefficient/forest plots, marginal-effects and
   predicted-probability plots, and event-study plots communicate magnitude and uncertainty better than
   a coefficient dump. Always show intervals, never stars alone.
4. **Three-line regression tables.** Booktabs style — top rule, header rule, bottom rule, no vertical
   rules. SEs in parentheses under coefficients; report N, the FE/clustering structure, and the
   estimator; define every abbreviation in the note.
5. **Accessible.** Colorblind-safe palette, legible in grayscale, no chartjunk, no 3D. Distinguish
   series by shape/linetype as well as color so the print and the PDF both work.
6. **Reproducible.** Each exhibit is generated by the master script; the printed numbers match the
   replication materials cited in the Data Availability Statement exactly (see
   `govern-transparency-and-data`).

## Comparative-governance exhibit menu

- **Cross-national descriptive table** — countries/cases in rows, institutional variables in columns;
  group by regime type or region; flag missing data honestly rather than blanking cells.
- **Coefficient / forest plot** — one estimate per country or per institutional subgroup with CIs;
  ideal for showing where a mechanism holds and where scope conditions bite.
- **Event-study plot** — for a reform or a staggered policy adoption across units; pre-trend periods on
  the left of zero, effect periods on the right, reference period marked.
- **Maps** — for geographic or cross-country variation (subnational governance, diffusion of a reform);
  use a sequential colorblind-safe ramp, classed not continuous, with the breaks justified in the note.
- **Small multiples** — one panel per country/case showing the same relationship; the comparison is the
  argument.
- **Case / process exhibits** — for qualitative or comparative-historical work: timelines, sequence
  diagrams, and evidence tables linking each claim to its source (pairs with QDR-style documentation).

## Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)

Generate exhibits from the fitted result, not by retyping numbers (the usual source of
body-vs-supplement drift). Full map: [`execution-with-mcp`](../../../shared-resources/empirical-methods/execution-with-mcp.md). Governance is public administration and institutions research — comparative and causal designs on governance reforms; the chain serves its quantitative-causal lane, while comparative-historical / qualitative work uses its own standards.

- **Tables:** `etable` (multi-model columns) 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 effect size in
  interpretable units.

See a full fitted-result → exhibit chain in the [JF execution walkthrough](../../../Journal-of-Finance-Skills/resources/worked-examples/02-execution-walkthrough.md).
## Checklist

- [ ] Each exhibit is self-contained: caption + labels + note give units, sample, time window, case set, N
- [ ] The comparison (across countries/institutions/domains) is visible in the ordering and layout
- [ ] Effects shown with intervals; no significance stars without an effect size
- [ ] Regression tables are three-line (booktabs); estimator, FE, and clustering stated in the note
- [ ] Colorblind-safe and grayscale-legible; series distinguished by shape/linetype, not color alone
- [ ] Maps use a justified classed ramp; projection and source noted
- [ ] Main text holds only the few exhibits that carry the argument; robustness grids → supplementary
- [ ] Every printed number matches the master-script output behind the Data Availability Statement

## Anti-patterns

- A wall of country coefficients with no plot showing where the effect travels and where it stops
- Tables that require the prose to be intelligible (not self-contained)
- Significance stars with no effect size or confidence interval
- Alphabetical country ordering that hides the institutional pattern the paper is about
- Color-only encoding that collapses in grayscale or for colorblind readers
- Cramming every robustness check into the main text and blowing the 9,000-word cap
- Exhibit values that do not match the deposited replication output

## Output format

```
【Main exhibit】what it shows + why this form (table/plot/map)
【Comparison visible?】cross-country/institutional contrast reads off the page? [Y/N]
【Self-contained?】caption + labels + note + units/N/case-set present? [Y/N]
【Accessible?】grayscale-legible + colorblind-safe? [Y/N]
【Article vs supplementary】split decided; 9,000-word impact noted
【Reproducible?】generated by master script, matches materials? [Y/N]
【Next】govern-writing-style
```

## Supplementary resources

- [`../../resources/external_tools.md`](../../resources/external_tools.md) — plotting/mapping packages and comparative-governance data sources
- [`../../resources/official-source-map.md`](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — word cap, figure/format guidelines, supplementary-material policy