# Overleaf wont compile even though there is no error

My issue is that Overleaf won't compile my file and won't produce a PDF. Can you please help me solve this issue? This is my url https://www.overleaf.com/read/yyffrwsrdbwq it is quite long so I won't copy paste it.

• I'd ask overleaf support – daleif May 29 at 18:16
• it just spins for me and does not stop unless forced, but while looking at the source I noticed several errors related to \\  and \center that should be \centering but nothing that would cause tex to hang like that – David Carlisle May 29 at 18:23

You have a lot of errors in your code. And that is the reason why you can not compile the code.

To give you a starting point please have a look to the following code I condensed from your given code to show you your errors in your tables. Please see that there are errors in your formulas too you need to correct, but I think you should ask a new question about that problem if you can not solve it after correcting the tables ...

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} % <=========================================
\usepackage{amsmath}

\usepackage{booktabs} % <=============================================== missing!
\usepackage{longtable}

\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{setspace}

\usepackage{csquotes}
%\usepackage[backend=biber,style=authoryear]{biblatex} % only this line!
\usepackage[style=numeric-comp,natbib=true]{biblatex} % or only this line!

\usepackage{hyperref}

\begin{document}

\doublespacing

% SEC1
%\input{./section/section_1}
\clearpage
\section{Does Inter-Municipal Cooperation Really Reduce Delivery Costs? An Empirical Evaluation of the Role of Scale Economies, Transaction Costs, and Governance Arrangements}
\subsection{Motivation and Objectives}
\label{sec:Intro}

Therefore, our first hypothesis states the following:%\\  % <=========== no! never!
%\\  % <================================================================ no! never!

\textbf{Hypothesis 1: Studies of small municipalities tend to find IMC more cost-advantageous.}

\begin{longtable}{l l l} % <============================================ 3 columns
\caption{Multivariate studies included in the meta-regression analysis}\label{subsec:Intro/table}\\
\toprule
\textbf{Study}                    & \textbf{Service} & \textbf{Effect}\\
\midrule
Bel \& Costas (2006)              & solid waste      & saves costs \\
Sørensen (2007)                   & solid waste      & increases costs \\
Bel \& Mur (2009)                 & solid waste      & saves costs \\
Dijkgraaf \& Gradus (2013)        & solid waste      & mixed results \\
Dijkgraaf \& Gradus (2014)        & solid waste      & no impact \\
Frère, Leprince \& Paty (2014)    & multiservice     & no impact \\
Bel, Fageda \& Mur (2014)         & solid waste      & saves costs \\
Soukopova \&  Klimovsky (2016a)   & solid waste      & saves costs \\
Soukopova \& Klimovsky (2016b)    & solid waste      & saves costs \\
Soukopova et al. (2016)           & solid waste      & increases costs \\
Niaounakis \&  Blank (2017)       & tax collection   & no impact \\
Soukopová et al. (2017)           & solid waste      & saves costs \\
Blåka (2017a)                     & fire service     & no impact \\
Soukopová \& Vaceková (2018)      & solid waste      & saves costs \\
Soukopova \& Sládecek (2018)      & solid waste      & saves costs \\
Ferraresi, Migali \& Rizzo (2018) & multiservice     & saves costs \\
Allers \& de Greef (2018)         & several services & mixed results \\
Bel, Qian \& Warner (WP)          & several services & mixed results\\
\bottomrule
\end{longtable}

\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{ c c }
$b_j$      & reported coefficient \\  % <==============================
$\beta$    & true effect \\
$\alpha_k$ & meta-regression coefficients\\
$Z_{jk}$   & meta-independent variables\\ % <==========================
$e_j$      & disturbance term of the meta-regression
\end{tabular}
\end{center}

\begin{longtable}{l|rrrrr}
\toprule
& OLS        & Robust OLS & GEE          & GLS \\
\midrule
Sample Size       & 6.78E-05   & 6.78E-05*  & 7.15E-05**   & 1.30E-04\\
Year Data         & -0.152     & -0.152     & -0.142       & -0.034\\
US                & -1.790*    & -1.790     & -1.831       & -4.101\\
Multi-Service 1   & 4.185***   & 4.185***   & 4.185***     & 3.290***\\
Panel             & -3.727***  & -3.727***  & -3.820**     & -5.377**\\
Population        & 4.65E-06** & 4.65E-06** & 4.44E-06***  & 3.85E-05***\\
Transaction Costs & -0.777     & -0.777     & -0.782       & -0.320\\
Delegation        & -5.473***  & -5.473***  & -5.377***    & -5.498***\\
Constant          & 306.799    & 306.799    & 287.147      & 70.857\\
\bottomrule
\end{longtable}

\label{subsec:Intro/rfs} % <====================================== ?????

See Table \ref{table:table-1} in Section \ref{subsec:Intro/table}  for details.

\end{document}


I marked important code changings with <==========.

Do not use \\ to start a new paragraph, use a blank line instead:

Therefore, our first hypothesis states the following:%\\  % <=========== no! never!
%\\  % <================================================================ no! never!


Your first longtable was defined to use 4 columns but you have only data for three columns. A table should have the heading at the beginning of the table and please see that the label has to follow command \caption. Please see that in longtable command \caption{...}\label{}\\ has to be ended with \\:

\begin{longtable}{l l l} % <============================================ 3 columns
\caption{Multivariate studies included in the meta-regression analysis}\label{subsec:Intro/table}\\
\toprule
\textbf{Study}                    & \textbf{Service} & \textbf{Effect}\\
\midrule
Bel \& Costas (2006)              & solid waste      & saves costs \\


Please see that I added package booktabs to be able to use commands \toprule, \midrule and \bottomrule. And please see the pretty printing I did in the tables to get better readable table code ...

In your second table you missed to add $ for mathematics: \begin{center} \begin{tabular}{ c c }$b_j$& reported coefficient \\ % <==============================$\beta$& true effect \\$\alpha_k$& meta-regression coefficients\\$Z_{jk}$& meta-independent variables\\ % <==========================$e_j$& disturbance term of the meta-regression \end{tabular} \end{center}  And please see that you have to use $Z_{jk}$ to get Z with index jk! $Z_j_k\$ is simply wrong!

\begin{longtable}{l|rrrrr}
\toprule
& OLS        & Robust OLS & GEE          & GLS \\
\midrule
Sample Size       & 6.78E-05   & 6.78E-05*  & 7.15E-05**   & 1.30E-04\\
Year Data         & -0.152     & -0.152     & -0.142       & -0.034\\
US                & -1.790*    & -1.790     & -1.831       & -4.101\\
Multi-Service 1   & 4.185***   & 4.185***   & 4.185***     & 3.290***\\
Panel             & -3.727***  & -3.727***  & -3.820**     & -5.377**\\
Population        & 4.65E-06** & 4.65E-06** & 4.44E-06***  & 3.85E-05***\\
Transaction Costs & -0.777     & -0.777     & -0.782       & -0.320\\
Delegation        & -5.473***  & -5.473***  & -5.377***    & -5.498***\\
Constant          & 306.799    & 306.799    & 287.147      & 70.857\\
\bottomrule
\end{longtable}

\label{subsec:Intro/rfs} % <====================================== ?????


I guess that \label should be the label of the table before? If yes add an \caption with following \label as done in the first table ...

With the mentioned correction in this answer you get the compiling code above with the following result:

and tables 2 and 3:

I suggest to get rid of the vertical rule marked with the red arrow changing

\begin{longtable}{l|rrrrr}


to

\begin{longtable}{lrrrrr}