Column Spacing using esttab & longtable

Question

I am outputting regression results from Stata to Latex. The problem is that, no matter how many columns I have, the spacing between the last column and the rest of the table is wider than other columns. I believe this is because I include a long note via the eesttab option in Stata:

 addnote("\begin{minipage}[t]{\columnwidth} 4-line CAPTION \end{minipage}")

Here is an example of Latex output:

\begin{document}
\begin{landscape}
{
\def\sym#1{\ifmmode^{#1}\else\(^{#1}\)\fi}
 \setlength{\tabcolsep}{1pt}
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{.9}
\begin{longtable}{l*{8}{c}}
\caption{OLS: \% Managed Care (All Models)}\\
\hline\hline
                    &\multicolumn{1}{c}{(1)}&\multicolumn{1}{c}{(2)}&\multicolumn{1}{c}{(3)}&\multicolumn{1}{c}{(4)}&\multicolumn{1}{c}{(5)}&\multicolumn{1}{c}{(6)}&\multicolumn{1}{c}{(7)}&\multicolumn{1}{c}{(8)}\\
                     &         b/t         &         b/t         &         b/t         &         b/t         &         b/t         &         b/t         &         b/t         &         b/t         \\
\hline
Emergency Fund Shock&    -0.00156         &    -0.00207\sym{**} &    -0.00293\sym{***}&    -0.00264\sym{***}&  -0.0000396         &    0.000367         &    0.000420\sym{***}&    0.000420\sym{***}\\
                    &     (-0.52)         &     (-3.13)         &     (-3.71)         &     (-3.62)         &     (-0.18)         &      (0.67)         &      (4.20)         &      (4.60)         \\
\end{longtable}
}
\end{landscape}
\end{document}

Is there a better way to add a caption to tex tables via esttab in Stata? I am trying to avoid having to edit each table by hand.

Answer 1

I fixed your code because it doesn't typeset as is, I also changed some things to make the table "cleaner". I also removed the \multicolumn commands you added, which were useless considering you only had single columns. This command is useful if your header refers to 2 or more columns, but for a single one, it's not needed.

I personally don't see particularly long space before the last column. Let me know if what you see below is what you see when you typeset.

The space I see between (7) and (8) is the same I see between (3) and (4) and between (4) and (5). I think it's just a matter of the amount of content.

One last thing, I commented out this command \setlength{\tabcolsep}{1pt}. The reason is that setting the column space to 1 point, it makes it even smaller than the default one. The table looked a bit better after removing that command. You could increase the value, but the spacing between columns will remain proportional, therefore pretty much unchanged.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[a4paper, landscape]{geometry}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{longtable}

\begin{document}

\def\sym#1{\ifmmode^{#1}\else\(^{#1}\)\fi}
%\setlength{\tabcolsep}{1pt}
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{.9}

\begin{longtable}{l*{8}{c}}
\caption{OLS: \% Managed Care (All Models)}\\
\toprule

    & (1) & (2) & (3) & (4) & (5) & (6) & (7) & (8) \\
    & b/t & b/t & b/t & b/t & b/t & b/t & b/t & b/t \\ \midrule

Emergency Fund Shock & -0.00156 & -0.00207\sym{**} &  -0.00293\sym{***} & -0.00264\sym{***} & -0.0000396 & 0.000367 & 0.000420\sym{***} & 0.000420\sym{***} \\

    & (-0.52) & (-3.13) & (-3.71) & (-3.62) & (-0.18) & (0.67) & (4.20) & (4.60) \\ 

\bottomrule
\end{longtable} 
\end{document}