How to multirow in tabularx environment?

Question

In my code, I was trying to assign four phrases in first column second row in line with their description...

\documentclass[13pt]{book}

\usepackage{tabularx,booktabs}
\usepackage{multirow}
\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\centering
\caption{Table of Variables}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{c>{\raggedright}X}
\toprule
\textbf{Variables} & \textbf{Description:} \tabularnewline

\midrule
return on equity (ROE)
& Return on equity can can be found and should be picked from the annual report or quarter report of these 13 commercial banks(See Appendix 2)\tabularnewline

\midrule
Tier 1 capital                      \\
Capital buffer                      \\
Risk-weighted assets                \\
Loan-to-deposit ratio   \\
& Bank-specific factors can be found and should be picked from the annual report or quarter report of these 15 commercial banks(See Appendix 2)
\tabularnewline


\midrule
Ownership
& Using dummy variable to denote ownership. State-owned banks (including BOC, ICBC, CCB, ABC) are equal to 1, the others are equal to 0 \tabularnewline

   \midrule
GDP
& China NBS Quarterly Data\\
 available from 1992-2016 Q1 \tabularnewline

\midrule
Central bank interest rate
&
OECD Data \\
 Short-term interest rates quarterly data\\
Long-term interest rate will be used if available\\
 available from 1997 Q3 - 2015 Q1 \tabularnewline

\bottomrule
\end{tabularx}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Answer 1

In this instance you can just set the contents in that cell using a [t]op-aligned tabular:

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage{tabularx,booktabs}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
  \centering
  \caption{Table of Variables}
  \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{ c >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}X }
    \toprule
    \textbf{Variables} & \textbf{Description:} \\
    \midrule
    return on equity (ROE) & Return on equity can can be found and should be picked 
                             from the annual report or quarter report of these~13 
                             commercial banks (See Appendix~2) \\
    \midrule
    \begin{tabular}[t]{ @{}c@{} }
      Tier 1 capital        \\
      Capital buffer        \\
      Risk-weighted assets  \\
      Loan-to-deposit ratio
    \end{tabular}
      & Bank-specific factors can be found and should be picked from the annual 
        report or quarter report of these~15 commercial banks (See Appendix~2) \\
    \midrule
    Ownership & Using dummy variable to denote ownership. State-owned banks (including 
                BOC, ICBC, CCB, ABC) are equal to~1, the others are equal to~0 \\
    \midrule
    GDP & China NBS Quarterly Data \\
        &  available from 1992-2016 Q1 \\
    \midrule
    Central bank interest rate & OECD Data \\
     & Short-term interest rates quarterly data \\
     & Long-term interest rate will be used if available \\
     & available from 1997 Q3 - 2015 Q1 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabularx}
\end{table}

\end{document}

makecell offers similar solutions.

Answer 2

Here is the solution with makecell: this package defines two main commands, which allow for line breaks and a common formatting of their contents, \makecell and thead. I also loaded caption, for a decent vertical spacing between caption and table, and changed the font size of the document to 12 pt (13pt doesn't exist for standard classes).

\documentclass[12pt]{book}

\usepackage{tabularx,booktabs}
\usepackage{makecell, caption}
\renewcommand\theadfont{\normalsize\bfseries}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\centering
\caption{Table of Variables}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{c>{\raggedright}X}
\toprule
\thead{Variables} & \thead{Description} \tabularnewline

\midrule
return on equity (ROE)
& Return on equity can can be found and should be picked from the annual report or quarter report of these 13 commercial banks(See Appendix 2)\tabularnewline

\midrule
\makecell[t]{Tier 1 capital \\
Capital buffer \\
Risk-weighted assets \\
Loan-to-deposit ratio}
& Bank-specific factors can be found and should be picked from the annual report or quarter report of these 15 commercial banks(See Appendix 2)
\tabularnewline
\midrule
Ownership
& Using dummy variable to denote ownership. State-owned banks (including BOC, ICBC, CCB, ABC) are equal to 1, the others are equal to 0 \tabularnewline

   \midrule
GDP
& China NBS Quarterly Data\\
 available from 1992-2016 Q1 \tabularnewline

\midrule
Central bank interest rate
&
OECD Data \\
 Short-term interest rates quarterly data\\
Long-term interest rate will be used if available\\
 available from 1997 Q3 - 2015 Q1 \tabularnewline

\bottomrule
\end{tabularx}
\end{table}

\end{document}