A Primer for Spatial Econometrics ─ With Applications in R

A Primer in Spatial Econometrics aims at meeting the growing demand in the field by introducing basic spatial econometrics methodologies to a wide variety of researchers. Spatial econometrics is a relatively new topic that is enjoying a widely dispersed growth in many of the social sciences. Readers will find this text to be an approachable, informative springboard to their own research and an invaluable support for those that want to start working immediately with the methods. It moves beyond previous studies as it is explicitly aimed at bridging the gap between a basic econometric textbook and more specialized texts in the subject.

This book provides a practical guide that illustrates the potential of spatial econometric modelling, discusses problems and solutions and enables the reader to correctly interpret empirical results and to start working with the methods. It provides essential notions and key insights as well as providing references for further reading to more in-depth discussions. Readers will appreciate the extensive presentation of examples in "R", which has emerged as the software of choice for model builders in this area. The text is integrated with real numerical examples, problem sets and practical exercises and also contains the description of the essential computer codes of the statistical software "R".

Giuseppe Arbia (PhD Cantab) is Full Professor of Statistics and Economics at the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Rome, Italy, and Visiting Professor at the Universita della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland. He was formerly Visiting Professor at New York University, USA, and at many other international universities. On the topic of Spatial Statistics and Econometrics he has published 5 books and more than 100 articles. He is currently the Chairman of the Spatial Econometrics Association.