Raising the bar (12) (original) (raw)

Usefulness of spatial econometrics in the regional science framework

During the last forty years, there has been an outstanding methodological development in regional and urban economics. This fact has fostered the necessity of working with cross-section data. When using this kind of data,spatial effects could arise: spatial heterogeneity and spatial dependence. Whereas the first effect could be solved by means of standard econometric techniques, spatial dependence requires a specific econometric treatment/strategy. Spatial econometrics provides appropriate techniques for testing and estimating in presence of spatial dependence. Although there has been a notable development in this field in the last two decades, spatial econometrics is far from classical econometrics in terms of its knowledge, diffusion and use in regional economic research. This work aims at contributing to the diffusion of spatial econometric techniques in our country, showing a briefly survey of the main theoretical contributions appeared in monographic and different specialised j...

Spatial economy: high-tech glossary or new regional economics?

Nova Economia

"The Spatial Economy Cities, Regions and International Trade", by Masahisa Fujita, Paul Krugman and Anthony J. Venables, has been seen as the best synthesis of the so-called new economic geography. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to review the book; and second, to place it in the current debate on regional economics. The first part of the paper is a brief introduction that situates the book in the history of regional economics. In the second part, a description and analysis of the basic models, their variations and applications are presented. The debate on regional economics concerning the theory proposed in the book is in the third part. Two aspects are stressed: the criticisms on the core-periphery model and how it incorporates regional diversity The fourth topic is a critical assessment of the achievements and originality of the new economic geography analysis.