In this paper, we derive a class of modified score tests robust to local and distributional misspecifications for testing spatial error autocorrelation and spatial lag dependence. The proposed tests are general enough to include several popular tests for the spatial dependence as special cases....

It is well known that the standard Lagrange multiplier (LM) test loses its local optimality when the true non-null model is not correctly specified. In this paper, we derive a score test robust to local and distributional misspecifications for spatial error autocorrelation and spatial lag...