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Interpretation: the final spatial frontier

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2019

Guy D. Whitten ,
Laron K. Williams  and
Cameron Wimpy Open the ORCID record for Cameron Wimpy [Opens in a new window]
Guy D. Whitten
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Texas A&M University, 4348 TAMU College Station, TX77843, US
Laron K. Williams
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Missouri, 103 Professional Building, Columbia, MO, 65211, US
Cameron Wimpy*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts AVE. E53–449 Cambridge, MA02139, US
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The use of spatial econometric models in political science has steadily risen in recent years. However, the interpretation of these models has generally ignored the important substantive, and even spatial, nature of the estimated effects. This leaves many papers with a (non-spatial) interpretation of coefficients on the covariates and a brief discussion of the sign and strength of the spatial parameter. We introduce a general approach to interpreting spatial models and provide several avenues for an exposition of substantive spatial effects. Our approach can be generalized to most models in the spatial econometric taxonomy. Building on the example of the diffusion of democracy, we elucidate how our approach can be applied to modern political science problems.

Keywords

Spatial methods
Type
Original Article
Information
Political Science Research and Methods , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 140 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © The European Political Science Association 2019

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Whitten et al. Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/RGDEET
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