Latex Empirical Tables

LaTeX Empirical Tables

Empirical economics and finance papers export regression and estimation output as estout/esttab "body fragments" — rows of \multicolumn headers, coefficients with \sym stars, and parenthesised p-values or SEs, with no \toprule/\bottomrule — pulled into the manuscript through a wrapper macro (\estauto/\estwide/\estautoLT). Done well this reads like a top-journal table. Done naively it looks broken: wide tables spill past the right margin, the note legend is jammed inside the tabular as a boxed cell, columns sit at uneven widths, and \input-ed fragments throw "Misplaced \omit". This skill sets a results .tex up from scratch, converts ugly estout tables to the gold-standard pattern, and diagnoses the \omit error. The reasoning behind each choice is given so you can adapt rather than copy blindly.

Routing

| You want to... | Go to | |----------------|-------| | Set up results.tex/main.tex and its preamble from scratch | Section A | | Fix or reformat existing estout tables (overflow, cramped notes, stars, alignment) | Section B | | Diagnose a "Misplaced \omit" error from an \input-ed fragment | Section C | | Merge several self-compiling block results.tex files into one master document | Section D | | Fix skipped table numbers (Table 1, Table 3, ...) when \captionof + longtable are combined | Section D |

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Section A — Build a results document from scratch

When producing regression or estimation tables, follow this workflow to create a compilable LaTeX document with a standard empirical-economics preamble and estout macros.

Directory structure

All output lives under outline/ relative to the project root:

outline/
├── preamble/
│   └── preamble.tex    ← LaTeX preamble (no \begin{document})
├── Tables/
│   ├── table_01.tex    ← table fragments (auto-increment)
│   ├── table_02.tex
│   └── ...
├── Figures/
│   └── ...             ← figures (.pdf, .png, etc.)
└── results.tex         ← master document (created on first table)

Step-by-step workflow

1. Ensure directories exist

Create outline/preamble/ and outline/Tables/ if they don't already exist. Also create outline/Figures/ if figures will be produced.

2. Save the preamble

Copy references/preamble.tex from this skill's directory to outline/preamble/preamble.tex. This file contains everything up to but NOT including \begin{document} — the document class, all packages, and the estout macro definitions (\estauto, \estwide, \estautoLT, \sym, \specialcell). The macros are defined there in full; Section B lists a minimal subset if you only need to graft them onto an existing preamble.

Do NOT create outline/results.tex yet — it gets created automatically when the first table is generated.

3. When producing a table

Each time a regression or summary table is generated:

1. Save the table fragment to outline/Tables/table_XX.tex with auto-incrementing

numbering (01, 02, 03, ...).

1. If outline/results.tex does not exist, create it:

```latex \input{preamble/preamble}

\begin{document}

\section{Tables}

\subsection{Descriptive Title} \begin{table}[H] \caption{Descriptive Title} \centering \estauto{Tables/table_01.tex}{N}{D{.}{.}{-1}} \end{table} \FloatBarrier

\end{document} ```

1. If outline/results.tex already exists, insert the following block BEFORE

\end{document}: ``latex \subsection{Descriptive Title} \begin{table}[H] \caption{Descriptive Title} \centering \estauto{Tables/table_XX.tex}{N}{D{.}{.}{-1}} \end{table} \FloatBarrier ``

Where N = number of data columns in the fragment (excluding the label column).

Estout table macros

Three macros are defined in the preamble for including table fragments generated by any tool (pyfixest, esttab, R, etc.). All use the TeX primitive \@@input to avoid \multicolumn/\omit errors (Section C explains why this matters).

| Macro | Use case | Environment | |-------|----------|-------------| | \estauto{file}{ncols}{colspec} | Standard-width tables | tabular | | \estwide{file}{ncols}{colspec} | Full-page-width tables | tabular* | | \estautoLT{file}{ncols}{colspec} | Multi-page tables | longtable |

The default column spec is D{.}{.}{-1} (decimal-aligned via dcolumn). Use c only when columns contain non-numeric content.

Table fragment format

Fragments must follow these conventions — the wrapper macros add \toprule and \bottomrule, so fragments should NOT include them.

Structure:

• Column headers: \multicolumn{1}{c}{(1)} style
• Group headers: \multicolumn{N}{c}{Group Name} with \cmidrule(lr){start-end}
• Coefficients right-aligned, p-values in parentheses on the next line
• Significance: \sym{*} p\omit`
• Scenario: A tabular environment uses \input{file.tex} where the file starts with

\multicolumn{N}{...}{...}

• Pattern: Multi-panel tables with \multicolumn{N}{l}{\textbf{Panel A:...}} as the

first content line fail, while single-panel tables starting with & \multicolumn{1}{c}{(1)} & ... succeed (because \omit is in the second cell, not the first)

• Key diagnostic: The exact same table content compiles without error when pasted

inline instead of \input-ed

Root Cause

LaTeX's \input command is NOT the TeX primitive. LaTeX redefines \input to wrap the primitive (\@@input) with:

• File existence checks (\InputIfFileExists)
• Path resolution
• Nested input tracking

These wrapper operations are non-expandable and execute as content in the first table cell. Once any content has been processed in a cell, \multicolumn's internal \omit command (which must be the absolute first token in a cell) is rejected by TeX's alignment mechanism.

Why some tables work: Fragments starting with & \multicolumn{1}{c}{...} put \omit in the second cell (after &), where it IS the first token. Only fragments where \multicolumn spanning all columns is the very first token trigger the error.

Solution

Replace LaTeX's \input with the TeX primitive \@@input in the table macro. The primitive is fully expandable and injects no tokens before the file content.

Before (broken):

\newcommand{\estauto}[3]{
    \vspace{.75ex}{
        \begin{tabular}{l*{#2}{#3}}
        \toprule
        \estinput{#1}
        \\ \bottomrule
        \addlinespace[.75ex]
        \end{tabular}
    }
}
\let\estinput=\input

After (fixed):

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\estauto}[3]{%
    \vspace{.75ex}{%
        \begin{tabular}{l*{#2}{#3}}\toprule\@@input #1 %
        \\ \bottomrule
        \addlinespace[.75ex]
        \end{tabular}%
    }%
}
\makeatother

Key details of the fix:

1. \@@input instead of \input: The TeX primitive is fully expandable, so it

injects no tokens before the file content. Requires \makeatletter / \makeatother since the name contains @.

1. Syntax: \@@input #1 (space-terminated filename, no braces). The trailing space

after #1 is the filename terminator for the primitive.

1. Same line: \toprule\@@input #1 % keeps everything on one line with % eating the

trailing newline, preventing whitespace tokens between \toprule and the file content.

1. % after lines: Add % at end of macro definition lines to prevent newline-generated

space tokens from entering the tabular cells.

Also fix: trailing \\ in fragments

When using an \estauto-style macro that appends \\ \bottomrule after the input, ensure table fragment files do NOT end with \\ on their last line. Double \\ before \bottomrule creates an empty row where \bottomrule's internal \omit/\multispan also fails.

Verification

1. Compile with pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode
2. Check log: grep "^!" results.log should return nothing
3. Previously failing multi-panel tables now compile cleanly
4. PDF output should be visually identical

Notes

• This is a fundamental TeX/LaTeX interaction issue, not specific to any particular package

or document class

• The booktabs package (\toprule, \midrule, \bottomrule) is NOT the cause, though

it commonly appears in the error context

• The issue affects ANY \input inside a tabular where \multicolumn is the first token,

regardless of \toprule

• MiKTeX, TeX Live, and other distributions are all affected
• \let\estinput=\input does NOT help because it aliases LaTeX's redefined \input, not

the primitive

• In nonstopmode, TeX ignores the error and produces correct output, but the errors halt

compilation in interactive/scrollmode (the default)

---

Section D — Assemble a master document from self-compiling block folders

Verified 2026-07-20 assembling seven exhibit blocks (each a self-compiling results.tex + Tables\ + Figures\ + block-local preamble\) into one exhibits.tex. A small script (make_master.py) extracts each block's body and concatenates them under one shared preamble. Three pitfalls bit in practice; all three fixes below are load-bearing.

The extraction recipe

For each block, take the text between \begin{document} and \end{document}, then rewrite resource paths into the block subfolder. THREE rewrites are required, not two:

body = body.replace("{Tables/",  "{" + block + "/Tables/")
body = body.replace("{Figures/", "{" + block + "/Figures/")
# bare \@@input (hand-rolled tabulars outside the est* macros have no brace before the path)
body = body.replace("\@@input Tables/", "\@@input " + block + "/Tables/")

The third line matters because a block that needs text columns often bypasses \estwide and writes \begin{tabular*}...\@@input Tables/frag.tex... directly — the path has no preceding {, so the brace-based rewrite misses it and the master fails with "I can't find file".

Hoist block-local preamble macros

A block's results.tex may define macros between \input{preamble/preamble} and \begin{document} (e.g. a bespoke table wrapper). Body-only extraction silently drops them and the master dies with "Undefined control sequence". Capture that pre-document chunk per block (minus the \input{preamble/preamble} line) and emit it into the master before \begin{document}. Block-named macros avoid cross-block collisions.

The \captionof + longtable counter double-advance

Symptom: tables number 1, 3, 5... (standalone or in the master). Cause: a longtable wrapper (\estautoLT) used under \captionof{table} advances \c@table TWICE — \captionof steps it and the longtable environment steps it again on its own. Fix inside the wrapper, so exactly one mechanism advances the counter:

\newcommand{\estautoLT}[3]{%
  \edef\est@savedtable{\arabic{table}}%   % save before longtable
  \begin{longtable}{l*{#2}{#3}} ... \end{longtable}%
  \setcounter{table}{\est@savedtable}%    % undo longtable's own step
}

Apply the patch in EVERY preamble that compiles the content — the block-local one AND the master's shared copy (the master never reads block preambles, so a fix living only there silently vanishes when the body is hoisted).

Parallel-fixer discipline

When several agents fix different blocks concurrently, exactly one process may own the master (make_master.py + its pdflatex) — block fixers rebuild only their own folder, and the orchestrator reassembles once at the end. Two concurrent master compiles race on exhibits.aux/.pdf and produce corrupt or interleaved output.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: kennethkhoocy
• Source: kennethkhoocy/applied-micro-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.