ggplot2: how to reduce space between narrow width bars, after coord_flip, and panel border

Question

When you have flipped coordinates, how do you reduce the space between bars that are narrow and the panel border? Using the data frame df and the ggplot commands, there is much white space between the bottom bar and the tick marks (and similarly a wide space above the "vendor" bar).

df <- data.frame(x = c("firm", "vendor"), y = c(50, 20))

ggplot(df, aes(x = x, y = y)) + 
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", width = 0.4) + 
  theme_tufte() +  coord_flip() +
  labs(x = "", y = "")

I tried scale_x_discrete with both limits and expand arguments to no avail as well as position = position dodge, likewise with no effect.

This question offers coord_equal to change the aspect ratio, and thereby reduce or eliminate the extra space, but notes that the solution does not work with coord_flip.

Answer 1

I think I have found a solution. You can remove width from geom_bar and introduce theme(aspect.ratio = .2), then you can play with the ratio to find the desired width. And unlike coord_equal or coord_fixed is compatible with coord_flip.

ggplot(df, aes(x = x, y = y)) + 
  geom_bar(stat = "identity") + 
  theme_tufte() + theme(aspect.ratio = .2) +
  coord_flip() +
  labs(x = "", y = "")