The paper focuses on the issue of the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP), which is frequently discussed within spatial econometrics. This issue concerns the changeability of the characteristics of the analysed phenomena under the impact of the change in the composition of territorial units...

The paper focuses on the issue of the aggregation problem which is frequently discussed within spatial econometrics. Aggregation problem is one of two aspects of the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP). The aggregation problem is connected with the volatility of the obtained results occurred...

The traditional approach to estimate spatial models bases on a preconceived spatial weights matrix to measure spatial interaction among locations. The a priori assumptions used to define this matrix are supposed to be in line with the "true" spatial relationships among the locations of the...

Social trust is increasingly seen as an important determinant of economic growth and social prosperity in regions and nations. Even in a comparatively homogeneous area such as Europe, there are stark sub-national differences in levels of generalized trust. It is thus of crucial importance to...

Finding proper policy instruments to promote productivity growth features prominently on the Lisbon agenda and is central in many national as well as European policy debates. In view of the increased mobility of high-skilled workers in Europe, ongoing globalization and increased interregional...

In this paper we refine the interpretation of the European two-dimensional political space and the investigation of its determinants compared to the approach commonly adopted in the spatial voting literature. Specifically, we take into account heterogeneity and cross-correlation among...

There is a great variation in the development of private health insurance (PHI) between European countries. Using data provided by Insurance Europe, World Bank and Standard and Poor's for 30 European countries, our research investigates the main factors influencing the size of these markets. In...

In this paper we propose a Bayesian estimation approach for a spatial autoregressive logit specification. Our approach relieson recent advances in Bayesian computing, making use of Pólya-Gamma sampling for Bayesian Markov-chain Monte Carlo algorithms.The proposed specification assumes that the...

The recent growth in foreign direct investment (FDI) has led to a proliferation of scholarly efforts to analyse the various dimensions of this phenomenon. Two main streams of research have emerged in the literature. The first analyses the economic effects of FDI inflows in the economy of the...