Econometrics for Spatial Models: Recent Advances

In the introduction to New Directions in Spatial Econometrics (Anselin and Florax, 1995b), the precursor to the current volume, we set out by arguing that “it would be an overstatement to suggest that spatial econometrics has become accepted practice in current empirical research in regional science and regional economics.” However, we also pointed out that “there is evidence of an increased awareness of the importance of space in recent empirical work in ‘mainstream’ economics” (Anselin and Florax, 1995a, p. 3). In the few years since New Directions appeared, the latter observation has been confirmed by a tremendous growth in the number of publications in which spatial econometric techniques are applied, not only within regional science and economic geography, but also increasingly in the leading journals of economics, sociology and political science. This has not gone unnoticed, and the wealth of new publications has resulted in a separate classification in the Journal of Economic Literature devoted solely to cross-sectional and spatial models.1 Parallelling the growth in applications, several new methods have been introduced as well, yielding a spatial econometric toolbox that is becoming ever more sophisticated.