Econometric Advances in Spatial Modelling and Methodology

Econometric Advances in Spatial Modelling and Methodology
Author: Daniel A. Griffith
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2013-04-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1475728999

The purpose of models is not to fit the data but to sharpen the questions. S. Karlin, 11th R. A. Fisher Memorial Lecture, Royal Society, 20 April 1983 We are proud to offer this volume in honour of the remarkable career of the Father of Spatial Econometrics, Professor Jean Paelinck, presently of the Tinbergen Institute, Rotterdam. Not one to model solely for the sake of modelling, the above quotation nicely captures Professor Paelinck's unceasing quest for the best question for which an answer is needed. His FLEUR model has sharpened many spatial economics and spatial econometrics questions! Jean Paelinck, arguably, is the founder of modem spatial econometrics, penning the seminal introductory monograph on this topic, Spatial Econometrics, with Klaassen in 1979. In the General Address to the Dutch Statistical Association, on May 2, 1974, in Tilburg, "he coined the term [spatial econometrics] to designate a growing body of the regional science literature that dealt primarily with estimation and testing problems encountered in the implementation of multiregional econometric models" (Anselin, 1988, p. 7); he already had introduced this idea in his introductory report to the 1966 Annual Meeting of the Association de Science Regionale de Langue Fran~aise.

Three Essays in Applied Microeconometrics

Three Essays in Applied Microeconometrics
Author: Nikolas Mittag
Publisher:
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN: 9781303229046

The second essay, "Imputations: Benefits, Risks and a Method for Missing Data", examines methods to deal with missing variables and missing observations. While the conditions under which missing data does not lead to bias as well as the conditions for missing data methods to yield consistent estimates are well understood, they often do not hold in practice. In order to provide guidance on whether to omit the missing data or to apply a method for missing data, the paper first examines conditions under which these methods can improve estimates and then discusses biases from frequent violations of their assumptions. I then discuss advantages and problems of common missing data methods. Two important problems are that most methods work well for some models, but poorly for others and that researchers often do not have enough information to use imputed observations in common data sets appropriately. To address these problems, I develop a method based on the conditional density and apply it to common problems to show that it works well in practice.

Spatial Microeconometrics

Spatial Microeconometrics
Author: Giuseppe Arbia
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2021-03-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317563476

Spatial Microeconometrics introduces the reader to the basic concepts of spatial statistics, spatial econometrics and the spatial behavior of economic agents at the microeconomic level. Incorporating useful examples and presenting real data and datasets on real firms, the book takes the reader through the key topics in a systematic way. The book outlines the specificities of data that represent a set of interacting individuals with respect to traditional econometrics that treat their locational choices as exogenous and their economic behavior as independent. In particular, the authors address the consequences of neglecting such important sources of information on statistical inference and how to improve the model predictive performances. The book presents the theory, clarifies the concepts and instructs the readers on how to perform their own analyses, describing in detail the codes which are necessary when using the statistical language R. The book is written by leading figures in the field and is completely up to date with the very latest research. It will be invaluable for graduate students and researchers in economic geography, regional science, spatial econometrics, spatial statistics and urban economics.

Spatial Econometrics using Microdata

Spatial Econometrics using Microdata
Author: Jean Dubé
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2014-11-10
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1848214685

This book provides an introduction to spatial analyses concerning disaggregated (or micro) spatial data. Particular emphasis is put on spatial data compilation and the structuring of the connections between the observations. Descriptive analysis methods of spatial data are presented in order to identify and measure the spatial, global and local dependency. The authors then focus on autoregressive spatial models, to control the problem of spatial dependency between the residues of a basic linear statistical model, thereby contravening one of the basic hypotheses of the ordinary least squares approach. This book is a popularized reference for students looking to work with spatialized data, but who do not have the advanced statistical theoretical basics.

Essays in Applied Microeconomics

Essays in Applied Microeconomics
Author: Arman Khachiyan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022
Genre:
ISBN:

This dissertation contains three essays studying topics in applied microeconomics. The first chapter is a co-authored paper in which we use daytime satellite imagery and convolutional neural networks to model economic growth at the neighborhood level. In the second chapter, I use this model to examine the spatial distribution of residential impacts from fracking. The third chapter investigates methods of measuring skill distance between occupations and proposes a new method which matches patterns of observed occupational transition. Each chapter uses unconventional data sources and machine learning techniques to contribute to central questions in labor economics research and policy. In the first chapter we apply deep learning to daytime satellite imagery to predict changes in income and population at high spatial resolution in US data. Our model predictions achieve R2 values of and 0.32 to 0.46 in decadal changes, which have no counterpart in the literature and are 3-4 times larger than for commonly used nighttime lights. Our network has wide application for analyzing localized economic shocks. One such application is my second chapter, which studies changes in total neighborhood income and population in areas near fracking extraction and shale reserves. My microspatial approach identifies that fracking exposure as far as 20 miles away leads to a 2 percent decline in neighborhood income. The spatial gradient and associated mechanisms of this effect indicate that it is driven by local industrialization rather than direct environmental externalities. Examination reveals margins of policy and labor conditions which attenuate the observed impacts. In the third chapter I show that a regression framework generates a novel, empirical occupational skill distance norm which is disciplined by observed occupation switching patterns. This approach relieves key limitations of existing measures such as linearity and symmetry. It also allows for an analysis of which skill dimensions relate to the portability of human capital, and which do not. Implications for existing results on skill portability are discussed, along with immediate policy applications on employee adjustment costs.

Essays in Microeconometrics

Essays in Microeconometrics
Author: Maximilian Kasy
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

This dissertation consists of four chapters contributing to the development of microeconometric methodology, with a particular emphasis on questions of identification. The methodological problems discussed are motivated by substantive questions about the causes of urban segregation and of long term unemployment. Chapter 1 develops static and dynamic models of sorting in which location choices depend on the location choices of other agents as well as prices and exogenous location characteristics. In these models, demand slopes and hence preferences are not identifiable without further restrictions because of the absence of independent variation of endogenous composition and exogenous location characteristics. Four solutions of this problem are presented and applied to data on neighborhoods in US cities: The first three use exclusion restrictions, based on either subgroup demand shifters, the spatial structure of externalities, or the dynamics of prices and composition in response to an amenity shock. The fourth tests for multiplicity of equilibria in the dynamics of composition, using the test proposed in chapter 2. The empirical results consistently suggest the presence of strong social externalities, that is, a dependence of location choices on neighborhood composition. Chapter 2 proposes an estimator and develops an inference procedure for the number of roots of functions which are nonparametrically identified by conditional moment restrictions. The estimator is superconsistent, and the inference procedure is based on non-standard asymptotics. This procedure is used to construct confidence sets for the number of equilibria of static games of incomplete information and of stochastic difference equations. In an application to panel data on neighborhood composition in the United States, no evidence of multiple equilibria is found. Chapter 3 proposes a test for path dependence in discrete panel data based on a characterization of stochastic processes that are mixtures of Markov Chains. This test is applied to European Community Household Panel data on employment histories. The data allow to reject the null of no path dependence in all subsamples considered. Chapter 4 discusses identification in nonparametric, continuous triangular systems. It provides conditions which are both necessary and sufficient for the existence of control functions satisfying conditional independence and support requirements. Confirming a commonly noticed pattern, these conditions restrict the admissible dimensionality of unobserved heterogeneity in the first stage structural relation, or more generally the dimensionality of the family of conditional distributions of second stage heterogeneity given explanatory variables and instruments. These conditions imply that no such control function exists without assumptions that seem hard to justify in most applications. In particular, none exists in the context of a generic random coefficient model.