The geography of spatial association across the Greek Regions: Patterns of persistence and heterogeneity

Abstract

Following the impressive advances in spatial econometric analysis over the last ten years or so, there appears to be a growing interest in an important spatial question that has been largely overlooked until very recently: how spatial dynamics differ across a range of socio-economic indicators. In this chapter, we address this issue for the case of Greece, examining data for a range of socio-economic indicators from the Greek prefectures. Starting from an exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), we explore the persistence of spatial clustering across socio-economic indicators through the application of a number of simple statistical tests. Greece presents a complex case in terms of spatial geography, as it is characterised by a combination of patterns of spatial heterogeneity and disparity. The analysis presented here shows that spatial processes correlate only weakly across socio-economic indicators, suggesting that policy spillovers for interventions targeting spatial cohesion may be also limited.