Mostly Pointless Spatial Econometrics?

Stephen Gibbons and Henry Overman

SERC Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: We argue that identification problems bedevil most applied spatial research. Spatial econometrics solves these problems by deriving estimators assuming that functional forms are known and by using model comparison techniques to let the data choose between competing specifications. We argue that in most situations of interest this, at best, achieves only very weak identification. Worse, in most cases, such an approach will simply be uninformative about the economic processes at work rendering much applied spatial econometric research 'pointless', unless the main aim is simply description of the data. We advocate an alternative approach based on the 'experimental paradigm' which puts issues of identification and causality at centre stage.

Keywords: statistical methods; spatial; modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C1 C12 C21 R00 R15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ecm, nep-geo and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/sercdp0061.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: MOSTLY POINTLESS SPATIAL ECONOMETRICS? (2012)
Working Paper: Mostly pointless spatial econometrics (2012)
Working Paper: Mostly pointless spatial econometrics? (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:sercdp:0061

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