Sigma-convergence in the presence of spatial effects

Sergio Rey () and Boris Dev
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Boris Dev: San Diego State University

Urban/Regional from EconWPA

Abstract: This paper explores the implications that spatial effects can hold for the application of measures of sigma-convergence. The bias of a common indicator of convergence is examined for a family of spatial process models including: [a] spatial lag, [b] spatial error, and [c] spatial moving average. We show that the measure of sigma-convergence is sensitive to a number of distinct influences including global dispersion, spatial dependence and a variety of forms of spatial heterogeneity. We suggest a decomposition of the convergence indicator into two components: one reflecting global dispersion and one reflecting the influence of spatial effects. We then illustrate this approach with a case study of the U.S. states over the 1929-2000 period.

Keywords: convergence; spatial dependence; spatial heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-ure
Date: 2004-04-21, Revised 2004-04-22
Note: Type of Document - ps; pages: 21
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpur:0404008

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