Problem with position of table using sidewaystable environment

Question

I am using the sidewaystable environment to rotate a table and its caption. My problem is that when compiling, there is a blank space at the bottom of the page and the table is moved to the top, colliding with the section header. I am using the rotating package; here is the code I use for this large table.

\begin{sidewaystable}\centering%
\begin{tabular}{ccp{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}}
\hline\hline
\textbf{Copula} &  & \multicolumn{1}{c}{} & \multicolumn{13}{c}{\textbf{%
Estimator}} \\ 
True $\lambda _{L}$ &  &  & $\lambda _{L,n}^{e}$ & $\lambda _{L,n}^{e,r}$ & 
lambda3 & $\lambda _{L,n}^{e}$ & $\lambda _{L,n}^{e,r}$ & $\lambda
_{L,n}^{ers}$ & $\lambda _{L,n}^{ers,r}$ & $\lambda _{L,n}^{CHT}$ & $\lambda
_{L,n}^{CHT,r}$ & $\lambda _{L,n}^{AM}$ & $\lambda _{L,n}^{GM}$ & $\lambda
_{L,n}^{rank}$ & $\lambda _{L,n}^{(U,U)(e)}$ \\ \hline\hline
\end{tabular}%
\caption{Comparison of the true tail dependence coefficient implied by the
parametric copula models, in the case of}%
\end{sidewaystable}\centering%

Any help is appreciated

Answer 1

You could use \resizebox to scale the table; additionally, you could also reduce \tabcolsep which controls the spacing between columns (default=6pt):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{rotating}

\begin{document}

\begin{sidewaystable}
\resizebox{\textheight}{!}{
\setlength\tabcolsep{2pt}
\begin{tabular}{ccp{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}}
  \hline\hline
  \textbf{Copula} & & \multicolumn{1}{c}{} & \multicolumn{13}{c}{\textbf{Estimator}} \\ 
  True $\lambda _{L}$ &  &  & $\lambda _{L,n}^{e}$ & 
    $\lambda _{L,n}^{e,r}$ & $\lambda3$ & $\lambda _{L,n}^{e}$ &
    $\lambda _{L,n}^{e,r}$ &   $\lambda_{L,n}^{ers}$ & 
    $\lambda _{L,n}^{ers,r}$ & $\lambda_{L,n}^{CHT}$ &  
    $\lambda_{L,n}^{CHT,r}$ & $\lambda   _{L,n}^{AM}$ & 
    $\lambda _{L,n}^{GM}$ & $\lambda_{L,n}^{rank}$ & 
    $\lambda _{L,n}^{(U,U)(e)}$ \\ \hline\hline
\end{tabular}}%
\caption{Comparison of the true tail dependence coefficient implied by the
parametric copula models, in the case of}%
\end{sidewaystable}

\end{document}

To improve the quality of your tables, you could be interested in the booktabs package.

Taking into account the comment, the intention seems to be just to shift the table downwards (which couldn't be the best option); to achieve this, an appropriate skip can be used:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{rotating}

\begin{document}

\begin{sidewaystable}
\hspace*{-3cm}
\begin{tabular}{ccp{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}p{0.45in}}
  \hline\hline
  \textbf{Copula} & & \multicolumn{1}{c}{} & \multicolumn{13}{c}{\textbf{Estimator}} \\ 
  True $\lambda _{L}$ &  &  & $\lambda _{L,n}^{e}$ & 
    $\lambda _{L,n}^{e,r}$ & $\lambda3$ & $\lambda _{L,n}^{e}$ &
    $\lambda _{L,n}^{e,r}$ &   $\lambda_{L,n}^{ers}$ & 
    $\lambda _{L,n}^{ers,r}$ & $\lambda_{L,n}^{CHT}$ &  
    $\lambda_{L,n}^{CHT,r}$ & $\lambda   _{L,n}^{AM}$ & 
    $\lambda _{L,n}^{GM}$ & $\lambda_{L,n}^{rank}$ & 
    $\lambda _{L,n}^{(U,U)(e)}$ \\ \hline\hline
\end{tabular}%
\caption{Comparison of the true tail dependence coefficient implied by the
parametric copula models, in the case of}%
\end{sidewaystable}

\end{document}